Adaptive Parenting in the Disaster Context: Parental Concerns and Protective Practices

Disasters produce significant challenges for families, including physical, social, financial, and emotional difficulties. This creates situations of risk, vulnerability, and instability for families. Yet, little research examines parenting in the context of disasters, despite their increasing prevalence and occurrence globally. This study examines the short- and long-term impacts of the 2013 Southern Alberta, Canada flood on parenting, using qualitative data from interviews with 105 parents of children ages 5–17 years who experienced the flood. We examine the impacts of post-flood parenting practices on parent-child relationships and interactions, and overall effects on family functioning. Findings reveal that parents who reported a strengthening of parent-child relationships and positive parent-child interactions after the flood, engaged in compensatory parental practices by increasing demandingness and responsiveness in parental protection practices, characteristic of an authoritative parenting style. Parents’ protective efforts included: (1) increasing attentiveness to children’s needs, security, and well-being (2) proactively identifying potential threats or dangers to children, and (3) mitigating risks by implementing rules to keep children safe. We discuss the implications these findings have for understanding the impacts of post-disaster parenting practices on family relationships, recovery, and resilience, providing important insights for policies and practices to support families after disaster.