Children's Disaster Trauma in Haiti: Configurations of Similarities and Dissimilarities in Experiences

The 2010 earthquake in Haiti, an urgent crisis, occurred in the context of persistent social dysfunctions, amplifying both the chronic poor living conditions and adversities for children and families. The present study sought to gain better understanding of the ways Haitian children respond during times of adversity. The House-Tree-Person (HTP) drawing test, culturally adapted for Haitians (Roysircar et al., 2017, 2019a, 2019b), was used to assess Resilience and Vulnerability in 75 Haitian children's 225 drawings to map the spatial configurations of their trauma experiences in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake and continuous trauma. Assessment data also included interviews with child self-report measures of self-esteem perceived by self, peers, and family; posttraumatic symptoms; and self-concept. Data analyses involved standardization of sample scores and reliability tests. Classical multidimensional scaling (MDS) examined relationships among variables of resilience, vulnerability, self-esteem, posttraumatic symptoms, and self-concept. MDS stress was reduced considerably with two dimensions, and there was minimal further reduction in stress with three or more dimensions. Furthermore, the two latent dimensions in Haitian children's mental health, called Feeling Unloved and Balance of Good and Evil, were interpretable within the conceptualization of the study and the literature on Haitians' and other disaster survivors' adaptive worldview. The authors' long-term investment in the people of Haiti increased trust, participation, research rigor, and cultural alignment of interventions, including the adaption of the HTP as a culturally sensitive and clinically useful instrument.