After the hurricane go for a massage!

Path of hurricane Andrew

Hurricane Andrew was one the strongest Hurricanes that passed Florida. First, it went over the sea, where it did not cause any harm. But unfortunately, it was heading to the land. It went over the over the Bahamas, and, over the densely populated area of Florida, on 24th of August 1992. It caused damages in the amount of 27.3 billion US Dollars.

It demolished shopping malls, but also many family houses. The hurricane had immense negative effect on the families and its children, which, psycho-developmentally, require a feeling of safety.

Campbell Drive K-8 Center is a grade school for children from 5 up to 14 years. The school and its children were located in the area that was affected by the hurricane.

It is well known that all sorts of physical violence can impact psychological well-being of humans.

Therefore, Field and colleagues from medical research institutes in Florida conducted a study about the impact that the hurricane had on the children’s behaviour and their psychological health.

Not only that, but because Field and Colleagues are researchers in the topic of Effects of Massage, they built a group of volunteered massage therapists and applied Massage Sessions to 60 children of the school and studied a possible relief of their suffering.

To do that, they divided the 60 children into two groups, one group which received massage, and one which didn’t, to be able to compare the results. The massage therapy group children received 30 min of back massage, covering neck and shoulders, two times a week over a period of one month.

Methodologies applied to measure the psychological well-being were taking saliva samples, observing behaviour, and letting draw self-images.

Drawing made by a 7-year-old girl at the beginning of the massage therapy

They found, that certain biochemicals, such as serotonin, dopamine, and cortisol, which are indicators for stress and happiness, improved after massage sessions. Also, the children of the massage therapy group showed lower scores of the Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale, and self-drawings were observed to be more relaxed.

Drawing made by the same 7-year-old girl at the end of massage therapy (1 month later)

Finally, the authors recommend that parents should learn techniques of massage and apply them to their children on regular basis, for example in an evening ritual.

Want to know more? Check the links and references.

Links and References

Original article: Alleviating posttraumatic stress in children following hurricane Andrew
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0193397396900040

Wikipedia page about the hurricane:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Andrew