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Experiences and perceptions of natural hazards among international migrants living in Valparaiso, Chile
Abstract
International migrants are a socially vulnerable group within the context of disasters. However, disasters research focusing on this group is limited. This problem is the primary focus of the present study.
Aim
To explore responses, behaviors and experiences concerning natural hazards among migrants living in Valparaíso, Chile.
Methods
Following a constructivist paradigm, we conducted a case study. We interviewed twenty migrants. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. The study was peer-reviewed by Universidad del Desarrollo Ethics Committee.
Results
Participants described intense emotional reactions when facing disasters that reduced their coping ability. Their limited knowledge about natural hazards and how to react, explains in part their responses and the difficulties they face. Participants compared their reactions with the behaviors exhibited by the local Chilean population who displayed very little fear and seemed to be used to these events. Finally, despite sharing the same native language, Spanish, preparation activities and warnings appear not to be reaching them.
Conclusions
There is an urgent need to implement culturally sensitive preparation strategies, through migrants' existing social networks, to address their needs and concerns and to enable them to cope with natural hazards. Emotional reactions appear to play an essential role in their response to natural disasters and should also be recognized and validated.
... Immigrant communities traditionally face linguistic, cultural, and economic barriers that could help them to understand and prepare for natural hazards of the territories they now inhabit. For example, in a study conducted with migrant adults living in Valparaíso, Chile, facing the risk of earthquakes and tsunamis, researches described how, these migrants who were fluent in the native language, faced barriers and difficulties to understand the instructions and plans developed by the authorities, which appear not to be cultural sensitive (Bernales et al. 2019). This disruptive and accelerated trend has serious implications for the design and implementation of risk prevention plans, programs, and policies, which must be adjusted to the new realities and population structures. ...
... This variable was also obtained from the National Socioeconomic Characterization Survey (CASEN) 2017 implemented by the Ministry of Social Development of Chile Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.differences(Bernales et al. 2019;Bolin and Kurtz 2018; Donner and Rodríguez 2008;Wilson and Tiefenbacher 2012). ...
One of the main challenges for studying social vulnerability to natural hazards is to capture their dynamic nature. In this study, we explore the spatial and temporal variations in social vulnerability in Chile for the last two decades. Using data reported in the previous three censuses, we have characterized social vulnerability using the Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) for 2,464 districts throughout the country for 1992, 2002, and 2017. We examined spatial variations in social vulnerability through global and local spatial autocorrelation analyses. Our results reveal that social vulnerability in Chile are distributed heterogeneously throughout the territory as a result of the spatial and temporal interaction of different factors that reflect the social and economic contrasts of its communities. In addition, factors that explain higher or lower levels of social vulnerability in one period may persist or reduce its influence over time. Therefore, territories were highly vulnerable at one time to become less so at another. Finally, factors such as disability and immigration emerge as significant elements of social vulnerability at the end of the period under study. We discuss the implications of our findings for those institutions responsible for the development and implementation of disaster risk reduction plans, programs, and policies.
... Preparedness in dealing with disasters is essential; therefore, it is necessary to provide disaster preparedness education and training to students to improve their readiness. Disaster preparedness is obtained from formal education, such as disaster education and training, and by experiencing a disaster or non-formal education (Bernales et al., 2018;Latupeirisa & Pujianto, 2020). People who have experienced a disaster usually tend to be more prepared when the disaster occurs again than those who have never experienced a disaster (Becker et al., 2017).Based on the data obtained by researchers from questionnaires filled out by the students of State Senior High School 1 Karangreja through Google form, data about the attitudes of students in State Senior High School 1 Karangreja in dealing with the earthquake disaster was obtained. ...
The aims of this study are 1) to analyze earthquake disaster education in State Senior High School 1 Karangreja, using a role-playing learning model.; 2) to analyze the knowledge and students’ attitude in dealing with earthquakes. The population of this study was all students of State Senior High School 1 Karangreja. State Senior High School 1 Karangreja is located on the slopes of Mount Slamet, making it prone to volcanic earthquakes. Disaster education for students is very needed. This will allow the students to have provisions when a disaster occurs. The number of samples is 56 respondents. The data collection techniques used are questionnaires, interviews, and documentation. The data analysis technique in this research is descriptive quantitative. The result of this study is that the condition of teachers in providing education about earthquake disasters is still at the stage of offering knowledge; there needs to be simulation practice involved. The level of preparedness knowledge of students with moderate levels of knowledge is 66% of respondents. Students with low levels of preparedness knowledge are as much as 16%. Students with an excellent preparedness attitude are as much as 52%. Researchers advise the school and the teachers to improve education on disasters, particularly earthquakes, based on the disaster vulnerability at the school.
... Psychological distress and fear, not understanding warnings or directions and not evacuating at appropriate times have been reported in migrant studies. Migrants are unwilling to move to unfamiliar locations, preferring to stay close to home where they feel safe [103,104]. ...
In Australia, residents can choose to remain to defend their property against bushfire but, since the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, considerable emphasis is placed on leaving early, well in advance of a bushfire. However, many householders delay their protective decision. The insights offered by the literature into how and why some people leave early before their personal safety is threatened can inform bushfire safety policy and practice. This systematic review reports the findings of 90 papers selected from 216 identified through a search of papers in Scopus, Science Direct and Google Scholar published between 1995 and May 2021 in English. This review establishes the reasons people leave early; the influence of official and unofficial warnings; gender and other demographics; the influence of self-evacuation archetypes; planning and preparation; the influence of children and other dependents and pets; triggers initiating leaving; factors impeding and facilitating leaving; and policy issues around early leaving. This review also details 12 seminal studies that capture much of the evidence on the decision to leave early.
... Therefore, preparing for earthquakes is as essential as reducing fear and anxiety, reducing impacts when a disaster strikes, and increasing self-sufficiency (e.g., Refs. [2,[21][22][23]. ...
The study aims to predict household earthquake preparedness in Malaysia using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in its original form and an extended model including community participation and community-agency trust. A survey was undertaken in 2019 with 550 Malaysian residential households in four locations. The structural equation modeling (SEM) method was used in this study for the analysis of data. The findings demonstrated support for the extended model of TPB and showed that attitude, subjective norms, community participation, and community-agency trust were significant predictors of behavior intention to engage the household in earthquake preparedness. In both models, the intention of the household to earthquake preparedness is an important positive contributor to actual preparedness. The study has shown that, contrary to our expectations, perceived behavioral control in both models has no significant effect on the intent to prepare. The results also displayed that the original TPB constructs contributed 26% and 32% of the variance in intentions to prepare and actual earthquake preparedness behavior, whilst the inclusions of community participation and community-agency trust slightly increased the explained variance by 31.2% and 39.5% respectively. As a result, the extended model of TPB provided a good fit with the data and explains slightly better amounts of variance in intention to prepare in comparison to the original TPB model. Adding constructs in the original TPB model considerably contributes to improving our understanding of household preparedness for future earthquake disaster risk.
... However, other approaches are also important. These include experiences, such as perceptions of natural hazards [78], flooding awareness [79], and memories of disasters [80], which are most often based on visual tools and oral narratives. For this article, the focus is on the former, to contrast data on local sustainable development within regions, as well as between regions. ...
Regional resilience refers to an immanent condition for facing multiple risks on a permanent basis, both episodic and incremental. These risks are not only linked to natural disasters and climate change, but also to poverty and inequality of access to services such as health, and personal safety.
This article considers the underlying conditions that shape regional resilience in Chile, based on inter-regional and intra-regional comparisons in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago and the Region of Araucanía. Instead of viewing resilience in terms of an ability to counter a single risk, the article highlights the fact that risks are multiple and overlapping over time and generated at different scales.
Municipal level data on poverty, health, and public finances in the two regions reveal the contrasting underlying inequalities that point to regional mosaics of resilience rather than homogeneity. Different threats are superposed on these preexisting conditions of resilience. The article refers to three in particular: the 2010 Chilean earthquake (episodic); climate change (episodic and incremental); and the Covid-19 pandemic (episodic). The findings point to high levels of urban versus rural differentiation, and also high differentiation within the Santiago Metropolitan Area based on socioeconomic
conditions. This regional mosaic of underlying structural conditions suggests that regional resilience can be enhanced by engaging with structural socio-spatial inequalities rather than a focus on managing risks via siloed, threat-by-threat responses.
... However, the ESIM programme of work has only had limited application to the study of crowd conflicts involving a complex array of multiple disturbances in Western European contexts (cf. Bernales et al., 2019;Drury et al., 2020b). Accordingly, this article aims to further expand the literature by providing an analysis of the extent to which ESIM can help to understand and explain the clashes between police and protesters across Hong Kong through the latter half of 2019. ...
Across the latter half of 2019, Hong Kong became the focus of world attention as it was rocked by a wave of increasingly violent confrontations between police and protesters. Both inside and outside the Territory, several powerful political actors have argued that the paramilitary-style police interventions used to manage the protests were necessary because the disorder was being fermented by agitators. In contrast, this article explores the utility of the Elaborated Social Identity Model of crowd behaviour to help explore and explain some of the social psychological dynamics through which the 2019 protests became ‘radicalised’. The article explores three key phases of their evolution to draw out the patterns of collective action and variations in policing approaches. We show that early demonstrations were focused predominantly on preventing the implementation of controversial legislation but spread and changed in form as a function of the use of crowd dispersal tactics by police. Moreover, we show how police inaction at other critical moments helped amplify perceptions of police illegitimacy that further radicalized protesters. Drawing upon a body of primary interview and secondary survey data, we also provide a social psychological analysis. We argue the observed patterns of collective action were underpinned by identity change and empowerment processes brought about as a consequence of both the structural context and the intergroup dynamics created in part by coercive policing practices.
... Without risk memory and local risk culture, these people might be more vulnerable due to their lack of local social support. There is hence a growing need to address local awareness particularities of this region, along with immigrants' perception of local risks, as it has been done recently for Chile [56] or Austria [63], in order to find variables permitting to enhance the inhabitants' perception of risk, as well as their protection behaviours. ...
North Morocco (region Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima) is characterized by high demographic and economic pressures, which intensify the vulnerability of the coastal areas. Morocco lies both along the Atlantic and the Mediterranean coast, having a rich relief of mountain chains (Atlas and Rif). This diverse context induces the challenge of adapting to environments that are drastically different, and of answering the question to which extent the local population is aware of different natural risks. Risk awareness is addressed as a predictor of precautionary behaviour in a questionnaire-based survey. Here the variables explaining the readiness of inhabitants to protect themselves and their belongings from natural risks in the present and the willingness to invest and to protect in the future are explored. Furthermore, based on the different response patterns in the survey, we used multiple correspondence analysis to identify profiles of typical dwellers. The results indicate local regional differences, where the Rif Mountain dwellers are more prone to protect themselves than the ones living in other parts of North Morocco. Finally, environmental identity indicates that the relationship with nature has an impact on risk awareness and precautionary behaviour. This study brings out information which could be useful for policy makers who should promote ecological concerns and encourage local action in resolving environmental issues when promoting risk mitigation measures.
Disaster research predominantly focuses on citizens, not on migrants. This tilted spotlight needs to be readjusted, since many advanced countries around the world have become immigration countries, and safeguarding the lives of migrants at times of disaster has become an important and immediate policy issue. Hence, this research concentrates on disaster management to protect the lives of migrants in a disaster‐prone and de facto immigration country. The particular country and event in question are Japan and the northern Osaka earthquake of June 2018. More than 100 migrants who lived near the earthquake's epicentre rushed to an evacuation shelter managed by the local municipal government of Minoh City, Osaka Prefecture. While non‐governmental organisations attract more attention, this paper centres on a local government and demonstrates the key role that it can play in both bridging and building networks across different communities, and thus in safeguarding the lives of migrants at times of disaster.
Pariwisata pesisir memiliki peran yang penting dalam menghasilkan pendapatan bagi Kabupaten Bantul, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta. Namun, keberlanjutan pariwisata pesisir dihadapkan pada tantangan akibat bahaya pesisir, seperti tsunami, yang memiliki potensi untuk menyebabkan krisis pariwisata. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk: (1) mengidentifikasi distribusi spasial bahaya tsunami, (2) menilai kesiapsiagaan masyarakat lokal dan pengunjung dalam menghadapi bahaya tsunami di daerah pariwisata pesisir, dan (3) mengevaluasi perencanaan kesiapsiagaan oleh para pemangku kepentingan manajemen bencana pariwisata.
Studi ini menggunakan pendekatan spasial yang dikembangkan oleh Berryman untuk memetakan bahaya tsunami, dengan mengasumsikan ketinggian gelombang maksimum sebesar 20 meter. Kesiapsiagaan level masyarakat diselidiki melalui survei kuesioner kepada 221 pengunjung pantai di lokasi terpilih (Parangtritis, Depok, dan Baru) melalui pendekatan convenience sampling. Sementara itu, kesiapsiagaan level institusional dievaluasi melalui wawancara mendalam kepada sepuluh informan kunci yang mewakili pemangku kepentingan manajemen bencana pariwisata.
Hasil studi menunjukkan bahwa zona bahaya tsunami mencakup area seluas 1.755,26 hektar. Sedikitnya ada 21 destinasi pantai yang menjadi elemen berisiko, yang menegaskan pentingnya perencanaan kesiapsiagaan. Pengguna pantai umumnya memiliki kesadaran yang relatif tinggi terhadap risiko tsunami, terlepas dari karakteristik demografi mereka. Namun, pengetahuan mengenai peringatan tsunami dan pemahaman tentang rute evakuasi ditemukan paling rendah di kalangan pengunjung dari luar provinsi. Analisis kesiapsiagaan institusional mengindikasikan bahwa para pemangku kepentingan mengakui bahaya tsunami di Bantul, dengan sebagian besar menekankan pentingnya perencanaan kesiapsiagaan. Strategi kesiapsiagaan dominan dilakukan oleh Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika (BMKG) dan Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah (BPBD), yang mencakup berbagai aspek mulai dari pemetaan bahaya, pengembangan sistem peringatan dini, perencanaan evakuasi, dan berbagai inisiatif peningkatan kapasitas lainnya. Dinas Pariwisata umumnya berperan sebagai pendukung, sementara keterlibatan pelaku usaha pariwisata minim. Studi ini merekomendasikan pendekatan tata kelola kolaboratif untuk merencanakan kesiapsiagaan pariwisata terhadap tsunami.
Kata Kunci: kesiapsiagaan, sektor pariwisata, tsunami, Bantul
In the research, decision-making capabilities are explored in relation to the prediction of evacuation efficiency to improve forecast accuracy on metro platforms. For this purpose, this study reviewed theories related to evacuation behaviours utilising the anomaly-seeking approach and the paradigm of relationship development. The conceptual framework of decision-making capability and evacuation behaviours was explored based on risk perception, level of emergency knowledge, survivability and emotion, and their relationship with the partial least squares equation was constructed. A predictive model of evacuation efficiency and its differential equations incorporating this relationship were also proposed based on the epidemic model. By developing and testing the conceptual framework and model, theoretical support is provided for evacuation behaviour, while assisting emergency management in developing plans and measures to respond to emergencies on metro platforms. This study realises the possibility of predicting evacuation efficiency from a decision-making capability perspective.
This article explores how immigrants and refugees, who are linguistic minorities, experienced the 2010–2011 disasters in Canterbury, New Zealand and Tohoku, Japan. The focus is on their perceived social vulnerabilities and resilience to disasters. Previous research has found that linguistic minority immigrants and refugees are socially vulnerable as they occupy a position of relative deprivation compared to majority groups. However, findings drawn from in-depth interviews demonstrate the fluid, complex and contextual nature of social vulnerabilities in disasters, suggesting that people may be simultaneously vulnerable and resilient. Their resilience arises partly from the everyday inequalities that they already confront, and partly because of previous experiences of disasters. Wars, conflicts, displacement and everyday hardships have given them “earned strength”. We supplement this concept with work on social capital to help disaster researchers re-conceptualize both the social vulnerability approach and its connections to disaster resilience thinking.
Although numerous studies have been conducted on the vulnerability of marginalized groups in the environmental justice (EJ) and hazards fields, analysts have tended to lump people together in broad racial/ethnic categories without regard for substantial within-group heterogeneity. This paper addresses that limitation by examining whether Hispanic immigrants are disproportionately exposed to risks from flood hazards relative to other racial/ethnic groups (including US-born Hispanics), adjusting for relevant covariates. Survey data were collected for 1283 adult householders in the Houston and Miami Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and flood risk was estimated using their residential presence/absence within federally-designated 100-year flood zones. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) with binary logistic specifications that adjust for county-level clustering were used to analyze (separately) and compare the Houston (N = 546) and Miami (N = 560) MSAs in order to clarify determinants of household exposure to flood risk. GEE results in Houston indicate that Hispanic immigrants have the greatest likelihood, and non-Hispanic Whites the least likelihood, of residing in a 100-year flood zone. Miami GEE results contrastingly reveal that non-Hispanic Whites have a significantly greater likelihood of residing in a flood zone when compared to Hispanic immigrants. These divergent results suggest that human-flood hazard relationships have been structured differently between the two MSAs, possibly due to the contrasting role that water-based amenities have played in urbanization within the two study areas. Future EJ research and practice should differentiate between Hispanic subgroups based on nativity status and attend to contextual factors influencing environmental risk disparities.
Introduction and purpose of the study:
Immigrants in Chile have diverse characteristics and include socioeconomically deprived populations. The location of socioeconomically deprived immigrants is important for the development of public policy intelligence at the local and national levels but their areas of residence have not been mapped in Chile. This study explored the spatial distribution of socioeconomic deprivation among immigrants in Chile, 1992-2012, and compared it to the total population.
Material and methods:
Areas with socioeconomically deprived populations were identified with a deprivation index which we developed modelled upon the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) for England. Our IMD was based upon the indicators of unemployment, low educational level (primary) and disability from Census data at county level for the three decades 1992, 2002 and 2012, for 332, 339 and 343 counties respectively. We developed two versions of the IMD one based on disadvantage among the total population and another focused upon the circumstances of immigrants only. We generated a spatial representation of the IMD using GIS, for the overall IMD score and for each dimension of the index, separately. We also compared the immigrants´ IMD to the total population´s IMD using Pearson´s correlation test.
Results:
Results showed that socioeconomically deprived immigrants tended to be concentrated in counties in the northern and central area of Chile, in particular within the Metropolitan Region of Santiago. These were the same counties where there was the greatest concentration of socioeconomic deprivation for the total population during the same time periods. Since 1992 there have been significant change in the location of the socioeconomically deprived populations within the Metropolitan Region of Santiago with the highest IMD scores for both the total population and immigrants becoming increasingly concentrated in the central and eastern counties of the Region.
Conclusion:
This is the first study analysing the spatial distribution of socioeconomic deprivation among international immigrants and the total population in a Latin American country. Findings could inform policy makers about location of areas of higher need of social protection in Chile, for both immigrants and the total resident population in the country.
It has been found that both preparedness for disasters and public response are significantly influenced by risk perceptions and trust in authorities and experts. Although Chile is a country with a long history of natural disasters, few studies have evaluated the risk perceptions of natural hazards or the degree of social trust. The aim of this study was to evaluate risk perception in Chile regarding various natural hazards and the degree of trust on authorities and institutions. A survey was conducted in five major cities in Chile during the year 2013 and was completed by a total sum of 2054 participants. We assessed risk perception of nine natural hazards and the level of trust in ten national institutions and authorities. According to declared levels of trust, the institutions and authorities included in this study were categorized into three groups: (1) low trust, which included governmental authorities and institutions; (2) medium trust, formed by institutions with educational and preparation roles; and (3) high trust, formed by institutions and authorities responsible for maintaining public order and conducting rescue and aid operations. Although our results show that earthquakes, tsunamis and wildfires were natural hazards of greatest concern to the national population, they also reflect that there are specific additional concerns in different cities that are coherent with their individual history of natural disasters. Implications for natural disaster risk preparedness are discussed.
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (SFDRR) is the first global policy framework of the United Nations’ post-2015 agenda. It represents a step in the direction of global policy coherence with explicit reference to health, development, and climate change. To develop SFDRR, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) organized and facilitated several global, regional, national, and intergovernmental negotiations and technical meetings in the period preceding the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) 2015 where SFDRR was adopted. UNISDR also worked with representatives of governments, UN agencies, and scientists to develop targets and indicators for SFDRR and proposed them to member states for negotiation and adoption as measures of progress and achievement in protecting lives and livelihoods. The multiple efforts of the health community in the policy development process, including campaigning for safe schools and hospitals, helped to put people’s mental and physical health, resilience, and well-being higher up the disaster risk reduction (DRR) agenda compared with the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015. This article reviews the historical and contemporary policy development process that led to the SFDRR with particular reference to the development of the health theme.
Se ofrece un análisis crítico de cómo el concepto de la vulnerabilidad social es usado en algunos estudios de desastres en Latinoamérica. La incorporación de la capacidad de resistencia produciría una apreciación mucho más apropiada del fenómeno de los desastres que impactan el continente, daría mayor relevancia a los procesos de movilización comunitaria, ayudaría a establecer modelos de administración pública más estables, y daría mayor vigencia a los estudios de las culturas ante los desastres. /// This article provides a critical analysis of the way the concept of social vulnerability is used in certain studies of disasters in Latin America. Incorporating the capacity for resistance would produce a far more accurate evaluation of the phenomenon of the disasters that have an impact on the continent, lend greater importance to the processes of community mobilization, help establish more stable public administration models and confirm the usefulness of studies on the reaction of cultures to disasters.
Disasters typically strike quickly and cause great harm. Unfortunately, because of the spontaneous and chaotic nature of disasters, the psychological consequences have proved exceedingly difficult to assess. Published reports have often overestimated a disaster's psychological cost to survivors, suggesting, for example, that many if not most survivors will develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); at the same time, these reports have underestimated the scope of the disaster's broader impact in other domains. We argue that such ambiguities can be attributed to methodological limitations. When we focus on only the most scientifically sound research-studies that use prospective designs or include multivariate analyses of predictor and outcome measures-relatively clear conclusions about the psychological parameters of disasters emerge. We summarize the major aspects of these conclusions in five key points and close with a brief review of possible implications these points suggest for disaster intervention.
The aim is to investigate differences in risk perception and behaviour among different population groups selected by gender, age, country of birth, disability and sexual orientation in the light of general values and vulnerability. The analyses use data from two Swedish national surveys from 2005 to 2008. People with foreign background perceive controlled and dread risks as a greater threat than do native-born people, but there is no difference in behaviour when general values and vulnerability have been controlled for. Compared to women, men rate known and dread risks as lower, but controlled risks as higher. Further, men’s behaviour is more risk-oriented and less risk-reducing, and homosexuals and bisexuals are more likely than heterosexuals to report risk behaviour. Compared to previous studies of the so-called White Male Effect carried out in the USA, gender does not play a similar role in Sweden. On the contrary, it seems as if gender is of less importance and that the strength of the association varies depending on type of risk or risk behaviour.
One way to reduce the risk from earthquakes is for individuals to undertake preparations for earthquakes at home. Common preparation measures include gathering together survival items, undertaking mitigation actions, developing a household emergency plan, gaining survival skills or participating in wider social preparedness actions. While current earthquake education programmes advocate that people undertake a variety of these activities, actual household preparedness remains at modest levels. Effective earthquake education is inhibited by an incomplete understanding of how the preparedness process works. Previous research has focused on understanding the influence individual cognitive processes have on the earthquake preparedness process but has been limited in identifying other influences posed by the wider social contextual environment. This project used a symbolic interactionism perspective to explore the earthquake preparedness process through a series of qualitative interviews with householders in three New Zealand urban locations. It investigated earthquake information that individuals are exposed to, how people make meaning of this information and how this relates to undertaking actual preparedness measures. During the study, the relative influence of cognitive, emotive and societal factors on the preparedness process was explored and the interactions between these identified. A model of the preparedness process based on the interviews was developed and is presented in this paper.
Many areas of the world are prone to several natural hazards, and effective risk reduction is only possible if all relevant threats are considered and analyzed. However, in contrast to single-hazard analyses, the examination of multiple hazards poses a range of additional challenges due to the differing characteristics of processes. This refers to the assessment of the hazard level, as well as to the vulnerability toward distinct processes, and to the arising risk level. As comparability of the single-hazard results is strongly needed, an equivalent approach has to be chosen that allows to estimate the overall hazard and consequent risk level as well as to rank threats. In addition, the visualization of a range of natural hazards or risks is a challenging task since the high quantity of information has to be depicted in a way that allows for easy and clear interpretation. The aim of this contribution is to give an outline of the challenges each step of a multi-hazard (risk) analysis poses and to present current studies and approaches that face these difficulties.
There is considerable federal interest in disaster resilience as a mechanism for mitigating the impacts to local communities, yet the identification of metrics and standards for measuring resilience remain a challenge. This paper provides a methodology and a set of indicators for measuring baseline characteristics of communities that foster resilience. By establishing baseline conditions, it becomes possible to monitor changes in resilience over time in particular places and to compare one place to another. We apply our methodology to counties within the Southeastern United States as a proof of concept. The results show that spatial variations in disaster resilience exist and are especially evident in the rural/urban divide, where metropolitan areas have higher levels of resilience than rural counties. However, the individual drivers of the disaster resilience (or lack thereof)-social, economic, institutional, infrastructure, and community capacities- vary widely.
The United States has no comprehensive national warning strategy that covers all hazards in all places. Instead, public warning practices are decentralized across different governments and the private sector. Uneven preparedness to issue warnings exists across local communities; hence, people are unevenly protected from the surprise onset of natural disasters. Without changes in this situation, inequalities will grow larger, and the gains made in saving lives over the past decades may well be reversed. Since the first assessment of research on natural hazards was completed in 1975, there have been significant improvements in forecasts and warnings for some hazards but only marginal improvements for others. Forecasts for floods, hurricanes, and volcanic eruptions have improved most significantly, and public dissemination of warnings has improved the most for hurricanes. However, a 100% reliable warning system does not exist for any hazard.
Despite considerable effort and expenditure on public hazard education, levels of disaster preparedness remain low. By integrating and expanding on natural hazards and health research on protective behaviour, this paper proposes a social cognitive model of disaster preparedness. The model describes a developmental process that commences with factors that motivate people to prepare, progresses through the formation of intentions, and culminates in decisions to prepare. Following their critical appraisal, variables implicated at each stage are identified and their role in the preparedness process described. The implications of the model for the conceptualisation and assessment of preparedness is discussed, as is its implications for risk reduction and communication strategies.
Thematic analysis is a poorly demarcated, rarely acknowledged, yet widely used qualitative analytic method within psychology. In this paper, we argue that it offers an accessible and theoretically flexible approach to analysing qualitative data. We outline what thematic analysis is, locating it in relation to other qualitative analytic methods that search for themes or patterns, and in relation to different epistemological and ontological positions. We then provide clear guidelines to those wanting to start thematic analysis, or conduct it in a more deliberate and rigorous way, and consider potential pitfalls in conducting thematic analysis. Finally, we outline the disadvantages and advantages of thematic analysis. We conclude by advocating thematic analysis as a useful and flexible method for qualitative research in and beyond psychology.
This article reviews the main insights from selected literature on risk perception, particularly in connection with natural hazards. It includes numerous case studies on perception and social behavior dealing with floods, droughts, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, wild fires, and landslides. The review reveals that personal experience of a natural hazard and trust-or lack of trust-in authorities and experts have the most substantial impact on risk perception. Cultural and individual factors such as media coverage, age, gender, education, income, social status, and others do not play such an important role but act as mediators or amplifiers of the main causal connections between experience, trust, perception, and preparedness to take protective actions. When analyzing the factors of experience and trust on risk perception and on the likeliness of individuals to take preparedness action, the review found that a risk perception paradox exists in that it is assumed that high risk perception will lead to personal preparedness and, in the next step, to risk mitigation behavior. However, this is not necessarily true. In fact, the opposite can occur if individuals with high risk perception still choose not to personally prepare themselves in the face of a natural hazard. Therefore, based on the results of the review, this article offers three explanations suggesting why this paradox might occur. These findings have implications for future risk governance and communication as well as for the willingness of individuals to invest in risk preparedness or risk mitigation actions.
Natural disasters including hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, and fires often involve substantial physical and mental impacts on affected populations and thus are public health priorities. Limited research shows that vulnerable populations such as the low-income, socially isolated migrant and seasonal farmworkers (MSFW) are particularly susceptible to the effects of natural disasters. This research project assessed the awareness, perceived risk, and practices regarding disaster preparedness and response resources and identified barriers to utilization of community and government services during or after a natural disaster among Latino MSFWs' and their families. Qualitative (N = 21) focus groups (3) and quantitative (N = 57) survey methodology was implemented with Latino MSFWs temporarily residing in rural eastern North Carolina to assess perceived and actual risk for natural disasters. Hurricanes were a top concern among the sample population, many participants shared they lacked proper resources for an emergency (no emergency kit in the house, no evacuation plan, no home internet, a lack of knowledge of what should be included in an emergency kit, etc.). Transportation and language were found to be additional barriers. Emergency broadcasts in Spanish and text message alerts were identified by the population to be helpful for disaster alerts. FEMA, American Red Cross, local schools and the migrant clinic were trusted places for assistance and information. In summary, tailored materials, emergency alerts, text messages, and news coverage concerning disaster threats should be provided in the population's native language and when feasible delivered in a culturally appropriate mechanism such as "charlas" (talks) and brochures.
Why do white men fear various risks less than women and minorities? Known as the “white-male effect,” this pattern is well documented but poorly understood. This article proposes a new explanation: identity-protective cognition. Putting work on the cultural theory of risk together with work on motivated cognition in social psychology suggests that individuals selectively credit and dismiss asserted dangers in a manner supportive of their cultural identities. This dynamic, it is hypothesized, drives the white-male effect, which reflects the risk skepticism that hierarchical and individualistic white males display when activities integral to their cultural identities are challenged as harmful. The article presents the results of an 1,800-person study that confirmed that cultural worldviews interact with the impact of gender and race on risk perception in patterns that suggest cultural-identity-protective cognition. It also discusses the implications of these findings for risk regulation and communication.
Se ofrece un análisis crítico de cómo el concepto de la vulnerabilidad social es usado en algunos estudios de desastres en Latinoamérica. La incorporación de la capacidad de resistencia produciría una apreciación mucho más apropiada del fenómeno de los desastres que impactan el continente, daría mayor relevancia a los procesos de movilización comunitaria, ayudaría a establecer modelos de administración pública más estables, y daría mayor vigencia a los estudios de las culturas ante los desastres.
This paper was meant to be on 'vulnerable populations', as some population sub-groups do require special care, special planning and special integration of needs. However, the issue should be reframed in terms of groups at higher risks. The text explains how (1) there are contextual vulnerabilities, in (a) higher susceptibility, i.e. higher exposure to risk, (b) higher sensitivity, i.e. higher damage or higher brittleness, and (c) weaknesses and gaps in the emergency system; (2) that these higher susceptibility, sensitivity and system weaknesses involve important psychosocial considerations, which may stem from socio-demographic status or ripple effects in the community; and finally, (3) that addressing those 'soft spots' using the phrase 'vulnerable populations' can be misleading and disserving because it disempowers, stigmatises and deters one from a more thorough analysis.
Disaster vulnerability is socially constructed, i.e., it arises out of the social and economic circumstances of everyday living. Most often discussed from the perspective of developing nations, this article extends the argument using American demographic trends. Examples from recent disasters, Hurricane Andrew in particular, illustrate how certain categories of people, such as the poor, the elderly, women-headed households and recent residents, are at greater risk throughout the disaster response process. Knowledge of where these groups are concentrated within communities and the general nature of their circumstances is an important step towards effective emergency management. Emergency planners, policy-makers and responding organisations are encouraged to identify and locate high-risk sectors on Community Vulnerability Maps, integrating this information into GIS systems where feasible. Effective disaster management calls for aggressively involving these neighbourhoods and groups at all levels of planning and response, as well as mitigation efforts that address the root causes of vulnerability.
Results for 160 samples of disaster victims were coded as to sample type, disaster type, disaster location, outcomes and risk factors observed, and overall severity of impairment. In order of frequency, outcomes included specific psychological problems, nonspecific distress, health problems, chronic problems in living, resource loss, and problems specific to youth. Regression analyses showed that samples were more likely to be impaired if they were composed of youth rather than adults, were from developing rather than developed countries, or experienced mass violence (e.g., terrorism, shooting sprees) rather than natural or technological disasters. Most samples of rescue and recovery workers showed remarkable resilience. Within adult samples, more severe exposure, female gender, middle age, ethnic minority status, secondary stressors, prior psychiatric problems, and weak or deteriorating psychosocial resources most consistently increased the likelihood of adverse outcomes. Among youth, family factors were primary. Implications of the research for clinical practice and community intervention are discussed in a companion article (Norris, Friedman, and Watson, this volume).
Over recent years, interest has grown in studying whether fatalismo (fatalism) deters Latinos from engaging in various health promotion and disease detection behaviors, especially with regard to cancer screening. This commentary presents problematic issues posed by the concept of fatalism, focusing on research on Latinos and cancer screening. We discuss key findings in the literature, analyze methodologic and conceptual problems, and highlight structural contexts and other barriers to health care as critical to the fatalism concept. Although the need to better understand the role of fatalistic beliefs on health is great, we discuss the public health implications of reaching premature conclusions concerning the effect of fatalism on Latinos' cancer screening behaviors.
We studied the experience of Hurricane Katrina evacuees to better understand factors influencing evacuation decisions in impoverished, mainly minority communities that were most severely affected by the disaster.
We performed qualitative interviews with 58 randomly selected evacuees living in Houston's major evacuation centers from September 9 to 12, 2005. Transcripts were content analyzed using grounded theory methodology.
Participants were mainly African American, had low incomes, and were from New Orleans. Participants' strong ties to extended family, friends, and community groups influenced other factors affecting evacuation, including transportation, access to shelter, and perception of evacuation messages. These social connections cut both ways, which facilitated and hindered evacuation decisions.
Effective disaster plans must account for the specific obstacles encountered by vulnerable and minority communities. Removing the more apparent obstacles of shelter and transportation will likely be insufficient for improving disaster plans for impoverished, minority communities. The important influence of extended families and social networks demand better community-based communication and preparation strategies.
This paper describes the level of public emergency knowledge and perceptions of risks among Latin American immigrants, and their preferred and actual sources of emergency preparedness information (including warning signals). Five Latino community member focus groups, and one focus group of community health workers, were conducted in a suburban county of Washington D.C. (N=51). Participants came from 13 Latin American countries, and 64.7% immigrated during the previous five years. Participants had difficulty defining emergency and reported a wide range of perceived personal emergency risks: immigration problems; crime, personal insecurity, gangs; home/traffic accidents; home fires; environmental problems; and snipers. As in previous studies, few participants had received information on emergency preparedness, and most did not have an emergency plan. Findings regarding key messages and motivating factors can be used to develop clear, prioritized messages for communication regarding emergencies and emergency preparedness for Latin American immigrant communities in the U.S.
Communities have the potential to function effectively and adapt successfully in the aftermath of disasters. Drawing upon literatures in several disciplines, we present a theory of resilience that encompasses contemporary understandings of stress, adaptation, wellness, and resource dynamics. Community resilience is a process linking a network of adaptive capacities (resources with dynamic attributes) to adaptation after a disturbance or adversity. Community adaptation is manifest in population wellness, defined as high and non-disparate levels of mental and behavioral health, functioning, and quality of life. Community resilience emerges from four primary sets of adaptive capacities--Economic Development, Social Capital, Information and Communication, and Community Competence--that together provide a strategy for disaster readiness. To build collective resilience, communities must reduce risk and resource inequities, engage local people in mitigation, create organizational linkages, boost and protect social supports, and plan for not having a plan, which requires flexibility, decision-making skills, and trusted sources of information that function in the face of unknowns.
During the past four decades (1960–2000), the United States experienced major transformations in population size, development patterns, economic conditions, and social characteristics. These social, economic, and built-environment changes altered the American hazardscape in profound ways, with more people living in high-hazard areas than ever before. To improve emergency management, it is important to recognize the variability in the vulnerable populations exposed to hazards and to develop place-based emergency plans accordingly. The concept of social vulnerability identifies sensitive populations that may be less likely to respond to, cope with, and recover from a natural disaster. Social vulnerability is complex and dynamic, changing over space and through time. This paper presents empirical evidence on the spatial and temporal patterns in social vulnerability in the United States from 1960 to the present. Using counties as our study unit, we found that those components that consistently increased social vulnerability for all time periods were density (urban), race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The spatial patterning of social vulnerability, although initially concentrated in certain geographic regions, has become more dispersed over time. The national trend shows a steady reduction in social vulnerability, but there is considerable regional variability, with many counties increasing in social vulnerability during the past five decades.
• disasters
• inequality
Introduction and purpose of this study: Colegio Ingles is the largest and oldest school in the city of Iquique, the capital of Chile's northern Tarapaca Region. In accordance with the School Evacuation Plan, a drill was held in 2013 with the entire student body (n = 1600). The majority of the students had experienced the 2014 Pisagua earthquake. Considering the school's exposure to natural disasters and the experience of its students, we studied the perspectives of k-12 students relative to their school's evacuation plan for a major disaster, such as an earthquake and a tsunami. Materials and methods: The study applied a qualitative methodology for in-depth exploration and insight into the students’ perceptions of the school evacuation plan. The methods applied were: (i) focus groups and (ii) individual mapping exercises. The participants recruited (n = 31), included children between the ages of 11 and 18 years old. The collected information was analyzed through a thematic analysis using NVivo 11 software. Results: The results flagged significant issues that had not been considered during the development of the school evacuation plan, such as the family dimension, which in some cases is contradictory with the school evacuation plan, as well as the need of redefining the safe zones from a multidimensional perspective. Conclusions: More participation from children in the local planning of the school evacuation plan was seen as necessary in order to strengthen their preparedness in case of disaster, integrating their school evacuation plan and their family ones.
Recent earthquakes in Chile, 2014, Mw 8.2 Iquique, 2015, Mw 8.3 Illapel and 2016, Mw 7.6 Chiloé have put in evidence some problems with the straightforward application of ideas about seismic gaps, earthquake periodicity and the general forecast of large megathrust earthquakes. In northern Chile, before the 2014 Iquique earthquake 4 large earthquakes were reported in written chronicles, 1877, 1786, 1615 and 1543; in North-Central Chile, before the 2015 Illapel event, 3 large earthquakes 1943, 1880, 1730 were reported; and the 2016 Chiloé earthquake occurred in the southern zone of the 1960 Valdivia megathrust rupture, where other large earthquakes occurred in 1575, 1737 and 1837. The periodicity of these events has been proposed as a good long-term forecasting. However, the seismological aspects of historical Chilean earthquakes were inferred mainly from old chronicles written before subduction in Chile was discovered. Here we use the original description of earthquakes to re-analyze the historical archives. Our interpretation shows that a-priori ideas, like seismic gaps and characteristic earthquakes, influenced the estimation of magnitude, location and rupture area of the older Chilean events. On the other hand, the advance in the characterization of the rheological aspects that controlled the contact between Nazca and South-American plate and the re-analysis of tsunami effects provide better estimations of the location of historical earthquakes along the seismogenic plate interface. Our re-interpretation of historical earthquakes shows a large diversity of earthquakes types; there is a major difference between giant earthquakes that break the entire plate interface and those of Mw ~ 8.0 that only break a portion of it.
Research has documented that immigrants tend to experience more negative consequences from natural disasters compared to native-born individuals, although research on how immigrants perceive and respond to natural disaster risks is sparse. We investigated how risk perception and disaster preparedness for natural disasters in immigrants compared to Canadian-born individuals as justifications for culturally-adapted risk communication and management. To this end, we analyzed the ratings on natural disaster risk perception beliefs and preparedness behaviors from a nationally representative survey (N = 1,089). Factor analyses revealed three underlying psychological dimensions of risk perception: external responsibility for disaster management, self-preparedness responsibility, and illusiveness of preparedness. Although immigrants and Canadian-born individuals shared the three-factor structure, there were differences in the salience of five risk perception beliefs. Despite these differences, immigrants and Canadian-born individuals were similar in the level of risk perception dimensions and disaster preparedness. Regression analyses revealed self-preparedness responsibility and external responsibility for disaster management positively predicted disaster preparedness whereas illusiveness of preparedness negatively predicted disaster preparedness in both groups. Our results showed that immigrants’ risk perception and disaster preparedness were comparable to their Canadian-born counterparts. That is, immigrant status did not necessarily yield differences in risk perception and disaster preparedness. These social groups may benefit from a risk communication and management strategy that addresses these risk perception dimensions to increase disaster preparedness. Given the diversity of the immigrant population, the model remains to be tested by further population segmentation.
Research on evacuation from natural disasters has been published across the peer-reviewed literature among several disparate disciplinary outlets and has suggested a wide variety of predictors of evacuation behavior. We conducted a systematic review to summarize and evaluate the current literature on demographic, storm-related, and psychosocial correlates of natural disaster evacuation behavior. Eighty-three eligible papers utilizing 83 independent samples were identified. Risk perception was a consistent positive predictor of evacuation, as were several demographic indicators, prior evacuation behavior, and having an evacuation plan. The influence of prior experiences, self-efficacy, personality, and links between expected and actual behavior were examined less frequently. Prospective, longitudinal designs are relatively uncommon. Although difficult to conduct in postdisaster settings, more prospective, methodologically rigorous studies would bolster inferences. Results synthesize the current body of literature on evacuation behavior and can help inform the design of more effective predisaster evacuation warnings and procedures.
How do humans behave when under threat of attack or disaster? How does the social context affect individual behavior? Anthony Mawson provides an illuminating examination of individual and collective behavior under conditions of stress and danger, in response to both natural and manmade threats and disasters. Opening with a question about the interpretation of “mass panic” in combat, the book gradually unfolds into a multidisciplinary analysis of the psychobiological basis of social relationships and the neural organization of motivation and emotion. Mawson provides a comprehensive review and synthesis of the mass panic and disaster literature and offers a social attachment model, that recognizes the fundamentally gregarious nature of human beings and the primacy of attachments. He argues that the typical response to threat and danger is neither fight nor flight, nor social breakdown, but increased affiliation and camaraderie. This book is unique in addressing the behavioral and social aspects of threat and disaster. It will appeal to social scientists across a range of disciplines, to public administrators, and to disaster and public health professionals.
Research reveals that disasters are disproportionately debilitating for marginalized social groups. Numerous studies have examined racial/ethnic dimensions of disaster vulnerability, but few have focused on Hispanic immigrants. More research on Hispanic immigrants is needed, since they constitute a major component of the Hispanic population—the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the U.S.—and because they experience distinctive cultural and immigration status disadvantages. We examine the flood/hurricane vulnerabilities of Hispanic immigrants in comparison to U.S.–born Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites. Using mixed methods to analyze data from 429 surveys and 31 interviews with residents living in flood zones, we examine differences in self-protective action, risk perception, and hazard knowledge between the three groups in Houston and Miami. Hispanic immigrants exhibited lower levels of self-protection and hazard knowledge, and higher perceptions of risk, which reflects their heightened vulnerability. Risk-reduction programs should target the particular vulnerabilities of Hispanic immigrants, and future studies should examine their vulnerabilities in other contexts.
Survivors of disasters commonly provide each other with social support, but the social-psychological processes behind such solidarity behaviours have not been fully explicated. We describe a survey of 1240 adults affected by the 2010 Chile earthquake to examine the importance of two factors: observing others providing social support and social identification with other survivors. As expected, emotional social support was associated with social identification, which in turn was predicted by disaster exposure through common fate. Observing others' supportive behaviour predicted both providing emotional social support and providing coordinated instrumental social support. Expected support was a key mediator of these relationships and also predicted collective efficacy. There was also an interaction: social identification moderated the relationship between observing and providing social support. These findings serve to develop the social identity account of mass emergency behaviour and add value to disaster research by showing the relevance of concepts from collective action.
In summary (Fig. 10.31), the potential areas most subject to large-magnitude earthquakes lie above the coupling region between the Nazca and South American plates, which corresponds to the contact region between the trench and approximately 45-53 km depth along the Wadati-Benioff region. Earthquakes in intraplate regions within the subducting Nazca Plate, which can reach magnitudes of the order of 8, are characterized by higher stress drops than events that take place in the contact between these two plates, thus producing higher accelerations at the surface. Large magnitude earthquakes are also generated at the transcurrent system between the South America and the Scotia plates. We have come a long way from the early reports of Maria Graham and Charles Darwin, and the overall controls on Chilean seismicity are clearly much better understood. Whilst future studies will continue to improve our knowledge of the seismic pattern, much work also needs to be done on prediction and damage limitation in this spectacularly earthquake-prone country.
The changing demographic landscape of the United States calls for a reassessment of the societal impacts and consequences of so-called "natural" and technological disasters. An increasing trend towards greater demographic and socio-economic diversity (in part due to high rates of international immigration), combined with mounting disaster losses, have brought about a more serious focus among scholars on how changing population patterns shape the vulnerability and resiliency of social systems. Recent disasters, such as the Indian Ocean Tsunami (2004) and Hurricane Katrina (2005), point to the differential impacts of disasters on certain communities, particularly those that do not have the necessary resources to cope with and recover from such events. This paper interprets these impacts within the context of economic, cultural, and social capital, as well as broader human ecological forces. The paper also makes important contributions to the social science disaster research literature by examining population growth, composition, and distribution in the context of disaster risk and vulnerability. Population dynamics (e.g., population growth, migration, and urbanization) are perhaps one of the most important factors that have increased our exposure to disasters and have contributed to the devastating impacts of these events, as the case of Hurricane Katrina illustrates. Nevertheless, the scientific literature exploring these issues is quite limited. We argue that if we fail to acknowledge and act on the mounting evidence regarding population composition, migration, inequality, and disaster vulnerability, we will continue to experience disasters with greater regularity and intensity.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the information channels used by public and nonprofit organizations to communicate disaster risk information to Colonias residents in Hidalgo County, Texas. It seeks to find creative and proactive solutions for organizations to improve risk education to these constituents.
Design/methodology/approach
– Initially a snowball sampling technique was used to conduct six face-to-face interviews. This was followed by an online survey sent to 64 reputational referrals, of which 23 completed the survey, generating a response rate of 34 percent. A comparative analysis between public and nonprofit organizations and the Fischer's exact test were employed to analyze the data.
Findings
– Channel preferences for providing risk information varied with public organizations using the television (TV) and the nonprofit organizations using bilingual staff for outreach. The television, radio, public events, and bilingual staff were considered to be the most effective while social media (Facebook, Twitter, and city web sites) was not considered at all by both groups. Lack of funding and staffing problems were identified as the primary challenges.
Research limitations/implications
– One limitation is that the paper focusses on organizations serving Spanish speakers in the Texas Colonias. Future research needs to investigate how other localities at border sites where culturally and linguistically diverse groups might reside, receive and understand risk information. The role of cross-national organizations in creating internationally coordinated plans for disaster communication should also be explored.
Originality/value
– It highlights the challenges faced by organizations in communicating risk, especially in border communities where culturally and linguistically diverse groups reside.
In response to a massive flood which struck the metropolitan area of Denver, Colorado, June 16, 1965, approximately 3,700 families were evacuated from their homes. Interviews with a random sample of 278 of these families indicated that the initial response to warnings was marked disbelief regardless of warning source. Families evacuated as units, and data indicated a strong tendency for them to take refuge in homes of relatives rather than in official centers. This tendency was significantly affected by social class. Data further suggested that interaction between relatives during the warning period increased the likelihood that relative homes would be selected as evacuation points.
A sample of 404 residents of southern Florida were interviewed in their own homes six months after Hurricane Andrew. The sample was composed of equal numbers of hispanics, non-Hispanic blacks, and Caucasians. Most Latinos (n = 97) elected to complete the interview in Spanish; all other interviews were conducted in English. Ethnic groups differed strongly in the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Caucasian disaster victims showed the lowest rate (15%), Spanish-preferring Latinos showed the highest rate (38%), and African-Americans showed a rate (23%) between these two extremes. Additional analyses attempted to explain these symptom differences in terms of differential exposure and differential vulnerability to trauma. Both explanations had merit but neither completely accounted for observed ethnic differences. Cultural-specific responses to Hurricane Andrew suggest the need to view psychological symptoms in light of the possible adaptive nature of the behaviors due to political, social, economic, and historical perspectives.
The psychosocial effects of the 1989 Newcastle earthquake on 250 immigrants from non-English-speaking backgrounds (NESB) were compared with a matched sample of 250 Australian-born subjects. The NESB subjects had higher levels of both general (General Health Questionnaire-12) and event-related (Impact of Event Scale) psychological morbidity. Furthermore, NESB females had the highest levels of distress, particularly those who were older on arrival in Australia and those who experienced high levels of disruption. The results suggest that NESB immigrants, particularly women, appear to be more at risk for developing psychological distress following a natural disaster. However, level of exposure and an avoidance coping style contributed more substantially to psychological distress than ethnicity.
(C) Williams & Wilkins 1995. All Rights Reserved.
The changing demographic landscape of the United States calls for a reassessment of the societal impacts and consequences oJ so-called "natural" and technological disasters. An increasing trend towards greater demographic and socio-economic diversity (in part due to high rates of international immigration), combined with mounting disaster losses, have brought about a more serious focus among scholars on how changing population patterns shape the vulnerability and resiliency of social systems. Recent disasters, such as the Indian Ocean Tsunami (2004) and Hurricane Katrina (2005), point to the differential impacts of disasters on certain communities, particularly those that do not have the necessary resources to cope with and recover from such events. Ihis paper interprets these impacts within the context of economic, cultural, and social capital, as well as broader human ecological forces. The paper also makes important contributions to the social science disaster research literature by examining population growth, composition, and distribution in the context of disaster risk and vulnerability. Population dynamics (e.g., population growth, migration, and urbanization) are perhaps one of the most important factors that have increased our exposure to disasters and have contributed to the devastating impacts of these events, as the case of Hurricane Katrina illustrates Nevertheless, the scientific literature exploring these issues is quite limited. We argue that if we fail to acknowledge and act on the mounting evidence regarding population composition, migration, inequality, and disaster vulnerability, we will continue to experience disasters with greater regularity and intensity.
The present article integrates findings from diverse studies on the generalized role of perceived coping self-efficacy in recovery from different types of traumatic experiences. They include natural disasters, technological catastrophes, terrorist attacks, military combat, and sexual and criminal assaults. The various studies apply multiple controls for diverse sets of potential contributors to posttraumatic recovery. In these different multivariate analyses, perceived coping self-efficacy emerges as a focal mediator of posttraumatic recovery. Verification of its independent contribution to posttraumatic recovery across a wide range of traumas lends support to the centrality of the enabling and protective function of belief in one's capability to exercise some measure of control over traumatic adversity.
In the current climate of evidence-based practice, physiotherapy is urged to prove its worth via rigorous scientific research. However, there are concerns that limited methodologies are used to explore complex therapeutic issues, and that the profession relies too heavily on quantitative research studies to provide its evidence base. Qualitative research methods are able to explore the complexity of human behaviour and generate deeper understanding of illness behaviours and therapeutic interactions. Nevertheless, there is still a sense of distrust of qualitative research, related to the challenge of evaluating both the quality and usefulness of findings derived through qualitative methods. This discussion paper explores these issues. It examines some of the most frequently used techniques aimed at ensuring quality and value in qualitative research, such as sampling, triangulation, multiple coding, respondent validation and the use of audit trails, as well as addressing reflexivity. Because of the pluralistic and interactive nature of qualitative inquiry, the criteria used to judge quality need to be appropriate to each piece of research and should provide evidence to help readers to evaluate the calibre of the study and its relevance to their own area of work.
Individual Emergency Preparedness in Canada: Widening the Lens on the Social Environment
- S Gibson
S. Gibson, Individual Emergency Preparedness in Canada: Widening the Lens on the
Social Environment, 2013. Retrieved from 〈https://www.ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/
10393/24099〉.