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The Impact of Major Earthquakes on Students’ Emotional Distress and Internalizing Symptoms, Externalizing Behaviors, and Coping During the Implementation of keepin’ it REAL-Mexico

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Abstract

This article reports on effects of two earthquakes in Mexico on adolescents attending middle school. The earthquakes struck in close succession during the implementation of a school-based prevention program, providing an opportunity to assess emotional distress due to the earthquakes and whether the life skills taught in the program affected how students coped with the natural disaster. The objectives were to (1) evaluate the earthquakes’ impact on students’ distress; (2) assess if distress is associated with internalizing symptomology and externalizing behaviors; and (3) investigate if students receiving the original and adapted versions of the intervention coped better with the events. A Mexico-US research team culturally adapted keepin’ it REAL to address connections between substance use among early adolescents in Mexico and exposure to violence. A random sample of public middle schools from three cities (Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey), stratified by whether they held morning or afternoon sessions, was selected. A total of 5522 7th grade students from 36 schools participated in the study. Students answered pretest and posttest questionnaires; the latter assessed earthquake-related distress and coping strategies. Earthquake-related distress was associated with all measures of undesired internalizing symptomology and externalizing behaviors. Compared to controls, students in the adapted intervention reported less aggressive and rule-breaking externalizing behavior and less violence perpetration. However, these intervention effects were not moderated by the level of earthquake-related distress, and they were not mediated by positive or negative coping. The findings have implications for prevention intervention research and policy as natural and human-made disasters occur more often.

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Funding

This study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), award R01DA038657, F. F. Marsiglia, PI.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Psicología, UNAM, Av. Universidad 3004, Col. Copilco - Universidad, Ciudad Universitaria, CP 04510, Mexico City, Mexico

    Maria Elena Medina-Mora

  2. Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de La Fuente Muñiz, Col. San Lorenzo Huipulco, Calz. México Xochimilco 101, C.P. 14370, Mexico City, Mexico

    Maria Elena Medina-Mora & Tania Real

  3. School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 873701, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    Stephen S. Kulis

  4. Global Center for Applied Health Research, Arizona State University, 411 N. Central Avenue, Suite 720, Phoenix, AZ, 85004-0693, USA

    Stephen S. Kulis & Flavio F. Marsiglia

  5. Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones, Universidad de Guadalajara, Francisco de Quevedo, 180 Col. Arcos Vallarta, CP, 44130, Guadalajara, México

    Bertha L. Nuño-Gutiérrez

  6. Departamento de Enfermerías, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, San Nicolás de La Garza, México

    Maria Dolores Corona

  7. Departamento de Psicología Clínica y Psicobiología, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, C/ Xosé María Suárez Núñez, Campus Vida, Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Spain

    Olalla Cutrín

  8. School of Social Work, Arizona State University, 411 N. Central Avenue, Suite 800, Phoenix, AZ, 85004, USA

    Flavio F. Marsiglia

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  1. Maria Elena Medina-Mora
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  2. Stephen S. Kulis
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  3. Tania Real
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  4. Bertha L. Nuño-Gutiérrez
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  7. Flavio F. Marsiglia
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephen S. Kulis.

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Ethics Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the IRB’s of the National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz and Arizona State University.

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All study participants provided written assent to participate as well as parental consent.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Registration Information

Full protocol can be accessed through Clinical Trials.gov. ID: NCT03233386, “’Keepin’ It REAL in Mexico: An adaptation and multisite RCT.”

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Medina-Mora, M.E., Kulis, S.S., Real, T. et al. The Impact of Major Earthquakes on Students’ Emotional Distress and Internalizing Symptoms, Externalizing Behaviors, and Coping During the Implementation of keepin’ it REAL-Mexico. Prev Sci 25, 256–266 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-023-01542-0

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