Together and Safe: Mothers' Experiences with Communicating to their Children About Wildfires Before, During, and After Evacuation

The 2016 Horse River wildfire in Northern Alberta devastated the community of Fort McMurray and surrounding areas, forcing residents to evacuate from their homes with little notice. Parents’ approach and style of communicating to their children about this event is critical in supporting family adapt...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Stone, Jezzamyn
Other Authors: Zwiers, Michael, Cairns, Sharon, Mendaglio, Sal
Format: Master Thesis
Language:English
Published: Graduate Studies 2017
Subjects:
Educational Psychology
Education > Guidance and Counseling
Education > Language and Literature
Canadian Studies
Individual and Family Studies
Environmental Sciences
Mental Health
Psychology > Developmental
Psychology > Social
Natural Disaster
Wildfire
Evacuation
Post-disaster recovery
Coping
Meaning making
Sense making
communication
Parent
Parent-child
Mother
Middle Childhood
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Qualitative research
Fort McMurray
Alberta
Horse River
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11023/4194
https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/28461
Description
Summary:The 2016 Horse River wildfire in Northern Alberta devastated the community of Fort McMurray and surrounding areas, forcing residents to evacuate from their homes with little notice. Parents’ approach and style of communicating to their children about this event is critical in supporting family adaptability, resiliency, and children’s competence in making sense and meaning from their experience. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the researchers sought to understand how parents make sense of their communication strategies to their children surrounding the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire evacuation. Parents’ patterns of supporting their children were identified in the interviews of six Fort McMurray residents regarding their evacuation experiences. Results indicated three overarching themes of parents’ approaches to support: constructing realities, shaping values, and fostering independent construction. Understanding how parents effectively navigate natural disaster evacuations will assist professionals in meeting families’ needs in disasters and times of stress.

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