Seminar 5 - Nov. 2, 2009

This week's discussion concerning Hurricane Katrina, youth anxiety and perceived attachment was very interesting. The conditions that were present seemed to be absolutely perfect for the administration of such a study. I, however, was unsure as to exactly how the study met legal consent requirements. It seems that some rules may have been broken, which in my opinion is slightly unnerving. Although the final results proved to be beneficial, its usage undermines the consent process. I understand that this simply could be due to different restrictions in the US, but then perhaps the APA should reevaluate some of these standards.

In terms of the study itself, I was surprised to discover that the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) and the Children's Report of Parent Behavior Inventory (CRPBI) were only administered pre Katrina. I see no reason as to why these measures couldn't be utilized a second time. Although it can easily be contended that attachment patterns remain stable across most normal children's lives, this situation is anything but normal. The situation in New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina most definitely could have influenced the parenting styles and attachment patterns of the parents. Not administering these measures assumes that the parents' mental states remained wholly unchanged after the hurricane. This most definitely is untrue considering the fact that many of the parents did experience psychological distress, psychopathologies and specifically PTSD as are discussed in the introduction of the paper [see Scaramella, Sohr-Preston, Callahan, & Mirabile (2008) and Scheeringa & Zeahah (2008)]. Had the researchers included these measures, I believe that they would have acquired significantly more compelling results. The results may have turned out to be completely contrary to their original findings, but either way this study would have demonstrated the effects of a hurricane on youth anxiety. At the present formulation, I feel that the study contains this error which may limit its overall generalizability into theoretical parent attachment models.