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Cognitive Performance in the Aftermath of a Natural Disaster: The Role of Coping Strategies, Theory of Mind and Peer Social Support

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Abstract

Background

In May 2012, Northern Italy was struck by a tremendous series of earthquakes, which had devastating consequences and persisted for several months. Previous research shows that coping strategies and Theory of Mind (ToM) can help sustaining cognitive performance after a traumatic experience.

Objective

We conducted a study to examine whether coping strategies used by elementary school children who were victims of the earthquakes were helpful in facing the consequences of these earthquakes by being positively associated with ToM and, in turn, with better cognitive performance.

Methods

We administered a questionnaire to 517 elementary school children a few months after the earthquakes of May 2012.

Results

Results revealed that active coping strategies were associated with greater ToM abilities that, in turn, were related with better cognitive performance. In contrast, negative coping strategies were negatively associated with the ability to mentalize others’ mental states and, in turn, with less positive cognitive performance. Avoidant coping strategies were positively associated with improved cognitive performance. Moreover, they were also associated with better cognitive performance via greater ToM abilities (this latter effect was present only among those perceiving stronger social support from their peers).

Conclusions

Active and avoidant coping strategies and ToM are important factors associated with better cognitive performance in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

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Notes

  1. The questionnaires included other measures which are not analyzed here.

  2. The Kidcope checklist is a screening measure tackling the use of various specific coping strategies with a yes–no format. As such, Cronbach alpha is often not computed (see, e.g., Jeney-Gammon et al. 1993; Paardekooper et al. 1999; Pereda et al. 2009; Piazza-Waggoner et al. 2008).

  3. Even though the lower bound of a bootstrap confidence interval is close to zero, an indirect effect is regarded significant at p < .05 if the confidence interval excludes zero, independently from how close lower or upper bounds are to zero (see, e.g., Shrout and Bolger 2002).

  4. Regression analyses were replicated controlling for the effects of grade and school of belonging by using the cluster option in PROCESS (Hayes 2012). Results were virtually identical, except for the mediation effect involving negative coping as predictor, which was nonsignificant when controlling for school of belonging. This weaker effect of negative coping might be partly due to the limited range of responses (0–2) provided by the measure used in this study. The reduced variability might have limited the predictive value of this variable. Future studies should verify this possibility.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Paola Caprari, Mirella Notardonato, Margherita Righi, Paola Spagnol and the other teachers for their help in the organization of the study. We are also grateful to the Institutes Frank, Giotto, Partini (Carpi), Frank (Novi di Modena), Battisti (Rovereto sulla Secchia) for allowing us to collect data. Finally, we wish to thank the students enrolled in educational academic courses at the University of Modena and Reggio Emila who helped with data collection and coding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy

    Alessia Cadamuro, Annalisa Versari, Loris Vezzali & Dino Giovannini

  2. University of Verona, Verona, Italy

    Elena Trifiletti

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  1. Alessia Cadamuro
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  2. Annalisa Versari
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  3. Loris Vezzali
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  4. Dino Giovannini
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  5. Elena Trifiletti
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Correspondence to Alessia Cadamuro.

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Cadamuro, A., Versari, A., Vezzali, L. et al. Cognitive Performance in the Aftermath of a Natural Disaster: The Role of Coping Strategies, Theory of Mind and Peer Social Support. Child Youth Care Forum 44, 93–113 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-014-9272-z

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