Research Report: The Role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Early Childhood Mental Health Resilience in Post-Climate Disasters

Researcher: Neyamat Hossen

Research Mentor: Shelina Bhamani

This study explores the role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in supporting young children’s emotional and cognitive resilience following climate disasters in three coastal communities in Khulna Division, Bangladesh. Drawing on 129 participants — caregivers, children, elders, ECD experts, and mental health professionals — the research finds that TEK practices, including storytelling, natural remedies, and community rituals, are widely viewed as playing a role comparable to medical knowledge in children’s recovery after disasters. The study identifies a stark “consensus-implementation gap”: while professionals broadly endorse TEK’s value, there is currently no clinical or programmatic integration of these practices into formal systems. Intergenerational transmission of TEK is also found to be in sharp decline as elder knowledge-holders age, compounded by climate change’s destruction of the ecological landscapes in which TEK-based healing is embedded.

Keywords: Traditional Ecological Knowledge; child mental health resilience; climate disasters; Bangladesh; intergenerational knowledge transmission; indigenous knowledge; coastal communities