Page 71 - IJPS-10-2

International Journal of
Population Studies Climate change and mental health of adolescents

be crammed into the shelters. There are no opportunities of all the adolescents who had lost their homes, farms,
for privacy. We live with people I do not know. Many companies, towns, or loved ones as a result of the flood.
boys look badly at us. I understand that when I see their A significant psychological influence was observed in
eyes. However, there is no point in telling anyone about adolescents. Adolescents who have experienced a traumatic
this. All of this is an increasing frustration. Day after event may experience anxiety, panic, depression, anger,
day, this frustration continues to grow.” violent conduct, apathy, social isolation, sleep difficulties,
15-year-old Maisha said: somatization, and pessimistic thinking (Auger et al., 2000;
“How nice it was to be home. In this case, many people Maltais et al., 2000; Schonfeld, 2002; Vranda & Sekar, 2011).
must stay in a single room. There was a significant A few psychological symptoms, such as increased PTSD,
amount of heat in the room. All around is full of depression, and psychological distress, were reported by
stenches. I’m not getting enough sleep. We have many adolescents who participated in this study. We observed
little kids here. There is always someone crying. Many that females staying in flood shelters after the crisis had
are sick. The environment is very dirty. Everyone is higher rates of PTSD and depression than boys.
bound to live in polluted environments. Being a girl, I Adolescents who participated in this research reported
can’t accept all this.” experiencing various psychological symptoms, including

3.3. Psychological distress increased PTSD, depression, and psychological distress.
Girls were more depressed and had more PTSD than boys
The mental health of people deteriorated for various living in flood shelters during the disaster.
reasons, including the extended shutdown of schools
due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Then, the flood forced In this instance, a gender imbalance was noticed while
the shutdown of the school once again. Moreover, the discussing the effects of any natural catastrophe; the same
management of the shelter was inadequate. Collectively, applies to flooding. There are situations in which males suffer
the behavior of teenagers became irregular. They exhibited more than females and vice versa (Ajaero, 2017; Salvati et
extremely short tempers when they were angry. They al., 2018). Studies found that girls are more prone to PTSD,
engaged in altercations and disagreements with one depression, and other psychological disorders caused by
another. The gender-wise difference was evident here; the natural disasters (Hassan et al., 2018; Nisha et al., 2014).
boys were more distressed than the girls. Our study also revealed that gender played a significant
role in the results. We discovered that girls experienced
17-year-old Rubel mentioned: higher levels of depression and PTSD compared to boys.
“Sitting in this shelter is annoying. We have so many Based on the findings of this investigation, PTSD is found
people living together. I can’t play, I can’t study. It’s in varying severity in both male and female participants.
all off. COVID-19 had come, and we had to stop Previous research has indicated that a significant number
studying. Now flood again. What is happening? I of adolescent survivors of floods have been found to suffer
am not getting peace of mind. Nothing looks good from PTSD (Mathew et al., 2021; Uttervall et al., 2013).
anymore. I don’t know why I suddenly got angry. I just The results of this study are consistent with those of other
can’t take anything easily.” studies, which found that women were more severely
16-year-old Mamun said: affected by natural disasters than males (Neumayer &
“Our city has never seen a flood before. Before, the Plümper, 2007) and girls had more PTSD than boys, which
villages used to be flooded. Water has never been here. is similar to other studies (Bokszczanin, 2007; Liu et al.,
That’s where we went to distribute relief. Now, we need 2006).
to provide relief. How difficult it is to be in a shelter! Scientists have found depression and depressive
It’s miserable! Everyone has a mentally difficult time. symptoms among adolescents who have survived the
No one is mentally fit. As a result, people have started flood (Otto et al., 2006; Paranjothy et al., 2011; Telles et al.,
arguing with each other for several reasons. The kids 2009). Our study revealed similar results. The adolescents
were crying at all times. Many are sick. There’s an acute living in the flood shelters were indeed suffering from
lack of food. There is no pure water. Who could stay depression. Moreover, we found that girls were more prone
calm or good to see all of this? None of us are good here.” to depression than boys, which also matched with previous

4. Discussion research (Asim et al., 2022; Felton et al., 2013). Adolescents’
mental health and the quality of their lives in areas relating
Natural catastrophes, such as floods and cyclones, to their mental health declined dramatically after the flood
destroy both lives and property on a massive scale. This (Alderman et al., 2013). There was psychological distress
research aimed to identify the mental health problems due to having to live in shelters like that. Lack of facilities,

Volume 10 Issue 2 (2024) 65 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.0339