Parents in three earthquake-hit provinces in Türkiye described sensory barriers, lost support services and lasting distress for their children and families.
Researchers held focus group interviews with 28 parents living in Kahramanmaraş, Hatay and Adıyaman, the three provinces most severely affected by the earthquakes. They examined experiences across disaster preparedness, emergency response and recovery.
Parents described limited preparation, shelters that did not accommodate sensory sensitivities, and the loss of essential support services. These conditions were associated with increased distress among both children and caregivers, including anxiety, sleep disturbances and behavioral regression in children.
What families reported
The study identified substantial gaps in disaster preparedness for children with autism and intellectual disability. Parents reported that emergency shelters often failed to accommodate sensory needs and that essential support services collapsed after the earthquakes. They described heightened anxiety, sleep disturbances and behavioral regression among the children, along with substantial psychological distress among caregivers.
The researchers concluded that the children’s trauma was shaped by both earthquake exposure and structural weaknesses in the disaster response. They also warned about “diagnostic shadowing”: treating trauma-related changes as part of a child’s pre-existing disability, which could make those responses harder to recognize and address.
Why inclusive response matters
The findings support including disability-specific planning in national disaster systems. For children with autism and intellectual disability, this could mean responses that account for sensory needs, disrupted routines and the loss of familiar support services, rather than treating all survivors’ needs as the same.
The study also highlights the need for clinicians and responders to distinguish new trauma responses from a child’s pre-existing disability. That distinction is important for recognizing distress and connecting children and caregivers with appropriate support.
Evidence and caveats
This was a qualitative study based on focus group interviews with 28 parents in three of Türkiye’s earthquake-affected provinces. The researchers analyzed the discussions using reflexive thematic analysis, a method for identifying patterns in participants’ accounts.
Because the study relied on parents’ reports and included a limited number of participants from three provinces, it cannot show how common each reported outcome was or establish that the earthquakes or specific response failures caused them. The findings describe families’ experiences rather than representing every child with autism and intellectual disability affected by the earthquakes.
// Source
Acta Psychologica · 2026 · DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.107770
Authors: Sinan Kalkan, Mustafa Yunus Eryaman
Institutions: Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi
