Psychological adaptation to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995: 16 years later victims still report lower levels of subjective well-being

• Report psychological adaptation to the 1995 earthquake.
• Use representative samples from the Kobe area.
• Follow-up surveys to up 16 years.
• Housing damage in 1995 is still associated with lower well-being years later.
• This is true controlling for the socioeconomic status in 1995.

We investigated psychological adaptation to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995, using surveys conducted in 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2011. Respondents whose houses were damaged reported lower life satisfaction, more negative affect, and more health problems than those who did not suffer any damage in all surveys, including in 2011, or 16 years after the earthquake. Likewise, residents with at least one immediate family member who died in the earthquake reported lower life satisfaction, more negative affect, and more health problems than those who did not have any immediate family members killed in all surveys, including in 2011. Surprisingly, the effect of housing damage on subjective well-being remained significant, above and beyond human loss. Equally important, the 2011 survey data showed that pre-existing differences in socioeconomic status between the victims of housing damage and human loss did not change our main findings.