Call for Chapters - Families and Disasters: Vulnerability, Shock, and Resilience

Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research (CPFR), a series focusing on cutting-edge topics in family research around the globe, seeks manuscripts for a special volume titled: Families and Disasters: Vulnerability, Shock, and Resilience.

Around the globe, natural disasters such as wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons, volcanic eruptions, droughts, and floods often strike with little warning and result in widespread devastation.  Aside from the environmental and material damage, disasters also impact families in a multitude of manners, affecting family relationships, support networks, and dynamics.  Before, during, and after such disasters, families quickly respond to dangers and attempt to support one another.  In many instances, families provide the various forms of necessary support which local and national governments cannot.  Afterwards, the recovery both involves families and affects families in many manners.  Through their resilience and endurance, families provide for the recovery of individual lives and beyond. 

This volume seeks topics from all theoretical and empirical perspectives, which explore families' experiences and resilience in the face of disasters. Topics may include, but are not limited to: the impact of disasters on family structures and roles over the life course; childcare during disasters; determinants of vulnerability in post-disaster recovery, including the intersectionality of race, class and ethnicity in different types of families; the impact of disasters on mental health; coping strategies used by families to deal with stress, loss, displacement, and trauma; intergenerational resilience and knowledge transfer within families on disaster preparedness, mitigation and coping mechanisms; family preparedness and risk reduction strategies; post-disaster family displacement and reintegration challenges; extended family social support systems; long-term recovery and reconstruction; lasting effects on family identity, relationships, and livelihoods; and the role of technology in disaster preparedness and response by families.

Submission Guidelines

Manuscripts should be limited to approximately 10,000 words, adhere to APA format, and submitted as MS WORD documents Include an abstract of 150–250 words at the beginning of the manuscript.  Dr. Rosalina Pisco Costa (University of Évora, Portugal) and Dr. Sampson Lee Blair (State University of New York, USA) will serve as coeditors for this volume. Please submit manuscripts directly to the editors at [email protected] and [email protected]. Manuscript submission to this call for papers implies a commitment to publishing with CPFR. All submissions must be original work and will undergo peer review. There are no submission or publication fees.

The deadline for initial submissions is February 1, 2027. Direct all questions to the editors: [email protected] and [email protected]. Authors are encouraged to submit a brief abstract prior to the manuscript deadline.