About a fourth of Chinese adolescents developed clinically significant depressive symptoms following a disaster. However, little is known about whether and how post-trauma negative life events and a sense of security are associated with depressive symptoms in this population. This study examined the psychological experiences of Chinese young people who had experienced the 2013 Ya’an earthquake in Sichuan, China.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2019. A total of 693 Chinese middle school students completed a questionnaire that measured their level of depressive symptoms, trauma exposure, stressful life events, and sense of security.

Results of hierarchical multiple-regression analyses showed that the level of life stress from stressful life events was positively associated with the level of depressive symptoms (β = 0.416, P < 0.001) and the level of the sense of security was negatively associated with the level of depressive symptoms (β = −0.352, P < 0.001) when analysis controlled for age, gender, and trauma exposure.

These findings highlight the importance of considering the influence of life stressors and the sense of security in devising measures and strategies for the prevention of the manifestation of depression among young people, particularly those who were exposed to disasters.

A sense of security is important in palliative home care. Yet, knowledge about which components contribute most to feeling secure from the patients’ and family caregivers’ perspectives, especially since the introduction of specialist palliative home care, is sparse. The goal of the current study was to determine the key components contributing to a sense of security and how they relate to each other as experienced by patients and family caregivers in specialist and generalist palliative home care.

The current sub-study, as part of a larger study, was performed in different regions in Germany. Palliative care patients and family caregivers of at least 18 years of age, being cared for at home were interviewed using semi-structured interview guides following a three-factor model and analyzed by using a combined quantitative-qualitative-content approach.

One hundred and ninty-seven patients and 10 carers completed interviews between December 2017 and April 2019. The majority of patients were diagnosed with an oncological disease. Sense of security was mentioned particularly often suggesting its high relevance. We identified nine subcategories that were all mentioned more frequently by specialist than generalist palliative home care recipients in the following order of priority and relation: (i) patient-centeredness: availability, provision of information/education, professional competence, patient empowerment, and trust (ii) organizational work: comprehensive responsibility, external collaboration, and internal cooperation, and (iii) direct communication.

The work of specialist palliative home care services in particular was perceived as very effective and beneficial. Our findings confirm a previously developed three-factor model allowing for generalizability and revealed that availability was most important for improving the sense of security for effective palliative home care.