Social Work Faculty Member Awarded Fellowship to Study Effects of Hurricane Maria

Dr. Amy Ai and Dr. Art Raney
Dr. Amy Ai and Dr. Art Raney

A Florida State University researcher has received a fellowship grant from the Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation to support her study on the impact of media on trauma recovery.

Professor of Social Work Amy L. Ai, named a 2019 Fahs-Beck Fellow, will use the $20,000 grant for her project, “Traumatization and Resilience among Puerto Rican Americans Following Hurricane Maria.”

“This project seeks to understand the resilience of victims and families in the aftermath of a hurricane and the influence of positive media on their recovery in Florida,” Ai said.

In 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico, displacing hundreds of thousands of its citizens and killing more than 2,900 people. Many Puerto Rican citizens fled to the United States mainland.

“No one has yet explored the crucial role that media can play for people recovering from the trauma of Hurricane Maria,” Ai said. “Frequently, media outlets were the only means of contacting people on the island after the storm. Media also remains a primary tool for escape and reflection after the traumatic event. The ultimate goal is to inform better in times of disaster relief.”

The grant provides research support to faculty members and post-doctoral researchers affiliated with nonprofit human service organizations in the United States and Canada that target projects offering innovative interventions designed to prevent or ameliorate major social, psychological, behavioral or public health problems affecting children, adults, families, and communities.

Ai co-designed the project with Professor Art Raney of the FSU College of Communication and Information, which combined their areas of expertise with massive disasters (Ai) and positive media (Raney). The new project builds upon Ai and Raney's work on hurricane victims and positive media previously funded by FSU's Office of Research Collaborative Collision Seed Fund.

The project will launch in June 2019. Preliminary data will be collected among evacuees and their extended families members currently living in Florida, as it remains the largest post-disaster resettlement site. This will include a digital survey of Puerto Rican Americans in Florida as well as Puerto Rican students at Florida public universities.

While the study was under review, Hurricane Michael attacked Florida and affected some Puerto Rican evacuees in the Mexico Beach area. Ai also will survey people impacted by that storm for her study.

Ai hopes that her research will provide some important insight into the impact of Hurricane Maria, as well as Michael, on participants’ mental health, their potential growth and positive gains. She also plans to explore how personal, social and informational media were used during the disaster, as well as the role media might play in promoting positive emotions and character strength along with mobilizing social resources as a part of a mental health and resilience response to a disaster.

The Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation was established by Dorothy Fahs-Beck to support research that contributes to a greater understanding of and solutions for problems affecting individuals, families and communities.

Tuesday, June 4, 2019 - 03:01 PM
Last updated: Tue, 03/26/2024 - 04:12 PM