Abstract

This study aims to compare the risk factors and effect sizes of emotional, behavioral, physical, and cognitive difficulties among disaster survivors and exploratively examine whether there are differences in risk factors by type of disaster. To this end, a multivariate analysis of variance was conducted using data from 2000 disaster survivors. The results showed that among the risk factors common to emotional, behavioral, physical, and cognitive difficulties after a disaster, the most influential factors with a medium effect size or higher were “perceiving the disaster as a life-changing event” and “the extent of economic and physical damage”. Comparing the relative effect sizes of these factors, “perceiving the disaster as a life-altering event” and “level of economic damage” had the largest effect on emotional distress after the disaster, and “level of physical damage” had the largest effect on physical distress after the disaster. In terms of risk factors that differed by disaster type, there were significant differences in behavioral and physical difficulties based on age for those who experienced natural disasters, and significant differences in physical difficulties based on gender rather than age for those who experienced social disasters. As the duration of the disaster increased, physical difficulties increased among natural disaster survivors and emotional difficulties increased among social disaster survivors, while the presence of legal proceedings made a significant difference only for cognitive difficulties among social disaster survivors. The findings of this study are significant in that they provide useful information for establishing risk criteria for screening assessments for post-disaster psychological support and providing a basis for diversifying intervention strategies.