• Difference-in-differences analyses show that refugee arrivals may reduce political trust in host communities. • The negative effect is stronger among people with lower education. • It is important to mitigate negative consequences of arrivals in host communities to uphold political legitimacy. Previous research shows that the arrival of forcibly displaced people may have a considerable impact on the economy and on livelihoods within host communities. This is particularly the case in many African countries, which host many of the world’s refugees, but may have limited capacity to handle sudden influxes of people. Yet the bulk of research on refugee arrivals and public opinion is conducted in wealthy, Western contexts. In this article, we start addressing this gap by assessing the effect of forced displacement on trust in national and local authorities. Theoretically, we draw on the literatures on the consequences of forced migration and political trust. Empirically, we rely on seven rounds of georeferenced Afrobarometer data (N = 228,242) combined with data on migrant settlements from the UNHCR People of Concern database to estimate a set of difference-in-differences regression models. We also test whether individual educational attainment moderates the effect of displacement. We find that camp establishment reduces both forms of political trust, and the effect is more pronounced among host community members with less education. This underscores the importance of human development in bolstering the host community’s coping capacity when new camps are established.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are increasingly recognised as key determinants of self-harm among adolescents, particularly within psychiatric and mental health service settings in Malaysia, where coping resources may shape vulnerability and resilience. A cross-sectional study was conducted among adolescents referred to psychiatry and mental health services in Malaysia. Of 1244 eligible patients aged 10-24 years, 1164 completed a clinician-administered, interviewer-guided questionnaire. Self-harm status was assessed in clinical care and was compared across ACE burden, individual ACE domains and coping-related protective factors through a clinician-led interview. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine adjusted associations with self-harm. Among 1164 participants, 827 (71.0%) reported lifetime self-harm. In adjusted analyses, a greater burden of ACEs was strongly associated with higher odds of self-harm. Compared with participants with no ACE exposure, the odds increased in a dose-response manner, from an adjusted OR (aOR) of 2.54 (95% CI 1.27 to 5.20) among those with 2-3 ACEs to 6.14 (95% CI 3.13 to 12.40) among those with ≥4 ACEs. Several coping-related factors were associated with lower odds of self-harm, including the ability to cope with stress (aOR 0.32, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.45), a sense of responsibility towards children, loved ones or pets (aOR 0.71, 95% CI 0.51 to 0.98) and perceived social support (aOR 0.63, 95% CI 0.40 to 0.97). In secondary analyses of individual ACE components, violence against household members, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, bullying and witnessing community violence were independently associated with higher odds of self-harm. This study showed high prevalence of self-harm among adolescents attending the psychiatric and mental health services. A greater cumulative burden of ACEs was associated with increased odds of self-harm, whereas protective factors including effective stress coping, a sense of responsibility towards loved ones or pets and social support were associated with reduced odds. These findings emphasised the importance of trauma-informed assessment and interventions that enhance coping capacities and social connectedness among young people presenting to mental health services.

Nursing staff consistently work in high-stress environments, and workplace violence has become a significant risk factor affecting their occupational well-being. However, the underlying mechanisms of this relationship remain to be fully elucidated. A cross-sectional study was conducted. From February to March 2025, a survey was administered to 9,466 nursing staff from over 50 hospitals in Lanzhou City using stratified convenience sampling. Spearman correlation analysis and hierarchical regression models were employed to examine the relationships among variables and to test the moderating effect of coping styles. Workplace violence demonstrated a significant negative predictive relationship with occupational well-being (β = -0.238, p < 0.001). However, its zero-order correlation was relatively weak, suggesting the presence of a suppression effect. Positive coping significantly enhanced occupational well-being (β = 0.453, p < 0.001), while negative coping served as a negative predictor (β = -0.161, p < 0.001). Moderating analysis revealed that under high levels of workplace violence, the protective effect of positive coping was attenuated (β = -0.049, p < 0.001), whereas the adverse effect of negative coping was amplified (β = 0.075, p < 0.001). Workplace violence impacts occupational well-being through complex mechanisms. Interventions should prioritize enhanced organizational support and coping skills training for personnel highly exposed to violence. Implementation strategies should adopt a stratified management approach based on levels of violence exposure, with emphasis on strengthening organizational support and coping capacity building in high-risk contexts.

Stress is an umbrella term indicating increased allostatic load with the potential to reach a pathological state of the organism. In this context, cortisol concentration and neutrophil granulocytes-to-lymphocyte ratio (NEU: LYM) are expected to increase. On the functional pathway, stress reduces the oxidative burst capacity of neutrophils and therefore, the leucocyte coping capacity (LCC) quantifying this oxygen radical generation of neutrophils. Therefore, we hypothesized that in ponies subjected to repetitive handling, LCC will decrease and will be negatively correlated with cortisol concentration and NEU: LYM ratio. Thus, LCC was measured over 90min by a portable chemiluminometer in nine university owned ponies involved in a vaccination study that included handling and sampling over 42 days. The area under the curve for LCC (AUCLCC) and LCC: NEU (AUCLCC: NEU), cortisol concentration measured by a validated EIA and NEU: LYM ratio were compared before and at days 1, 3, 28, 31 and 42 after immunization by linear mixed models. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between AUCLCC, AUCLCC: NEU, cortisol concentration and NEU: LYM ratio. AUCLCC, AUCLCC: NEU and cortisol concentration showed a significant decrease. AUCLCC was moderately positively correlated with NEU: LYM and weakly positively correlated with cortisol concentration, but no correlations were found for AUCLCC: NEU. The progressive decrease of AUCLCC, AUCLCC: NEU, and cortisol concentration might indicate an increasing stress load. However, this was not supported by the time course of NEU: LYM ratio or by the correlations between these parameters. While the slight decrease in LCC over time partially supported our hypothesis, we found no evidence of correlations among AUCLCC: NEU and the other measured stress parameters. This may indicate that different stress markers reflect distinct endpoints within the physiological pathways of the stress response. Future studies should confirm these preliminary results and also incorporate ethograms to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the stress response and to further evaluate the value of LCC as a stress marker in horses.

ABSTRACTNatural hazards like floods, storms, or earthquakes turn into disasters if they hit vulnerable communities and societies. In policy and academia, this understanding has led to a surge of models and risk reduction policies that aim to reduce vulnerability and strengthen resilience. However, it remains unclear which vulnerabilities are the most important, and what stakeholders in different contexts prioritize. To address this gap, this article identifies critical exposure, vulnerability, and coping capacity factors, elicits their priority among emergency responders from different contexts, and analyses their perceived interdependences to understand their cascading potentials. To do that, we conducted a stakeholder survey with experienced disaster and emergency management professionals around the world. The results are used to analyze the perceived relationships between the priority factors via a fuzzy cognitive map. The professionals identified the level of preparedness, exposure to hazard, risk and crisis communication, community engagement, and disaster risk financing as the most important factors. The results show that the most catastrophic disasters are perceived to be caused by a combination of multiple factors and their interdependences. It was also found that practitioners thought that active civil protection agencies and available disaster risk financing have the greatest potential to prevent disasters.

ObjectiveThe study examines how households in two Indian states managed food insecurity in the context of COVID-19, focusing on differences between migrant and non-migrant households in rural and urban areas.MethodsWe integrate Davies’ framework of coping strategies with the Sustainable Livelihoods and Resilience frameworks to analyze how coping capacity is shaped by structural inequalities, existing resources, social networks, and access to entitlements. Between December 2022 and March 2023, we conducted 343 semi-structured interviews in 86 households in Uttar Pradesh and Goa, purposively sampled by migration status, location, caste, and household type. Thematic analysis was complemented with narrative analysis of 60 interviews from 15 households that had experienced severe COVID-related shocks, including job loss, reverse migration, and illness.FindingsStrategies ranged from routine adjustments—dietary substitutions, portion control, and pooling resources—to erosive responses such as maternal buffering, selling assets, accumulating debt, withdrawing children from school, and delaying healthcare. Rural non-migrants drew on kinship ties and PDS support, while migrants, especially circular migrant workers/recent arrivals were excluded from both entitlements and social support networks. Reverse migration reconnected households with rural networks but also strained agrarian systems.ConclusionMigration status and rural–urban location critically shaped resilience. Coping responses to COVID-19 depended less on income loss than on structural access to entitlements and social support networks, highlighting the need for inclusive, context-specific, and targeted social protection.

Transformative adaptation interventions protect vulnerable populations from the dreadful consequences of climate change. Current debates emphasize system change and collective agency, leaving the concept of transformative individual adaptation undefined. This article aims to present a fuller account of transformative action and capacity at the microlevel (i.e., individual and household). Our study examines adaptation responses of different levels of disruptive impact and their relationships with the inherent and acquired capacities of individuals. Evidence was collected from coastal areas in Indonesia and Myanmar through structured questionnaire surveys. Results show that voluntary migration and social mobilization are a function of transformative capacity. Incremental action is only predicted by indicators of coping capacity, representing assets, capabilities, and entitlements. These findings suggest that enabling transformative individual adaptation requires the strengthening of individual agency, encompassing perception of change, flexibility, interest in undertaking significant change, and autonomy. A conceptual framework is presented in this article, integrating these considerations with other contextual factors, including socioeconomic characteristics, values, and power relations. This study reveals key determinants for capacity-building initiatives to facilitate transformative individual adaptation. Fostering collective agency through participatory and bottom-up processes is important. Research, policy, and practice can expedite microlevel transitions by orienting these processes toward the enhancement of individual agency for transformation.

Abstract Droughts, exacerbated by climate change, pose increasingly complex challenges for social-ecological systems worldwide. Traditional index-based methodologies capture vulnerability and resilience at an aggregate level but often overlook the nuanced ways in which these two constructs interact. To address this gap, this study introduces the Matrix-Based Drought Indicator System (MADIS) framework that operationalizes the interdependence between vulnerability and resilience at the indicator level. By distinguishing between coping, adaptive, and transformative capacities, the MADIS framework supports a more detailed assessment of how specific resilience indicators can mitigate different vulnerability factors. Two studies, online workshops with global drought experts and collaborative workshops focusing on small-scale farming communities in Pennsylvania, demonstrate how participatory methods can be used to identify and validate these interdependencies. Findings suggest that integrating indicator-level interdependencies leads to more refined risk categorizations, facilitates stakeholder consensus, and better informs targeted policy interventions. These case studies also reveal the drawbacks and implementation challenges of the MADIS framework. Ultimately, the MADIS framework contributes to a more dynamic view of resilience and social-technical-ecological systems analysis of climate change-related risk assessment. Future work will expand upon this approach by incorporating continuous temporal feedback, additional hazard indicators, and integration with social-technical-ecological systems analysis.

Metaverse adoption among university Generation Z in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia: A cross-cultural analysis of individual, social and ethical impacts

Open-heart surgery is a physically, psychologically, and spiritually demanding experience, making holistic nursing care essential for supporting patients' overall well-being. This study aimed to explore the spiritual care experiences of nurses providing care to patients undergoing open-heart surgery. A qualitative phenomenological design was used to capture the meaning structures underlying nurses' experiences. The study was conducted in the Cardiovascular Surgery (CVS) intensive care unit and ward of Van Training and Research Hospital. Data were collected between May and June 2025 through face-to-face, in-depth individual interviews with 10 nurses who had experience caring for patients undergoing open-heart surgery. Interviews were audio-recorded with participants' consent, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using Braun and Clarke's six-phase thematic analysis approach with support from MAXQDA 24. The analysis revealed four main themes and 24 sub-themes reflecting the core meaning of nurses' spiritual care experiences. The main themes are: 1- The nurse's inner world and clinical reflections of spiritual care, 2- Patients' individual spiritual needs, belief systems, and perceptions of illness and death, 3- Implementation of spiritual care: the nurse's role and the texture of care, 4- Barriers and system-level constraints in providing spiritual care.Nurses reported that spiritual care enhanced patients' inner peace, coping capacity, and readiness for surgery while strengthening the therapeutic relationship. However, limited education and inadequate institutional support hindered the consistent delivery of spiritual care. The findings underscore the importance of developing culturally sensitive training programs, establishing institutional guidelines, and promoting multidisciplinary collaboration to strengthen nurses' competence and extend the integration of spiritual care into clinical practice.

The impact of land use change awareness on the psychological adaptation of migrant communities in Khulna city

Relationship between anticipatory grief and dyadic coping in advanced cancer patients and their spouses: An examination based on the actor-partner interdependence model.

Left globus pallidus volume moderates the association between traumatic experiences and coping flexibility.

Purpose: Evidence of (informal) family caregivers’ probability for major mental disorders remains limited. This study aimed to examine the association between high-intensity informal caregiving and major mental disorders using register-based data. Methods: This study included all recipients of the family caregiver’s allowance in Finland in 2012 (n = 42,256) and matched controls (n = 83,618). Information on diagnoses of mental disorders treated in hospitals or specialized healthcare settings was obtained from the National Care Register for the period 2012–2017. Results: Overall, 5036 (11.9%) caregivers received at least one diagnosis of a major mental disorder. Caregivers exhibited a lower likelihood of major mental disorders compared to controls; however, from youth to age 70, caregivers were more likely to experience a major mental disorder compared with controls. Caregivers had a higher incidence rate ratio (IRR) for major psychiatric conditions, particularly depressive and mood disorders (IRR 1.33, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.26–1.41) and anxiety-related disorders (IRR 1.37, 95% CI 1.29–1.46). Male caregivers had a higher IRR of mental and behavioral disorders related to psychoactive substance use compared with female caregivers (IRR 3.04, 95% CI 2.66–3.47). By contrast, male caregivers had a lower IRR of depressive and mood disorders than female caregivers (IRR 0.74, 95% CI 0.66–0.82). Conclusions: This study enhances our understanding of family caregivers’ likelihood for specific mental disorders. Improved knowledge of these probabilities may facilitate the development of proactive strategies to protect caregivers’ mental health and coping capacity before clinically significant problems emerge.

Cerebral palsy (CP) is one of the most common childhood neurodisability globally and disproportionately affects children in low- and middle-income countries. In Cameroon, limited epidemiological data, weak rehabilitation infrastructure, and entrenched sociocultural beliefs shape how CP is understood and managed. Children with CP often require lifelong support, placing substantial physical, emotional, and economic demands on family-caregivers, most commonly mothers. Understanding caregivers' lived experiences within specific cultural and resource-limited contexts is critical for informing inclusive and effective interventions. This study explored the lived experiences and challenges of family-caregivers of children with CP in Magba Subdivision, West Region of Cameroon. This study employed a qualitative exploratory design using in-depth interviews and inductive content analysis. Participants were family caregivers of children with CP, purposively recruited through community-based rehabilitation (CBR) services. In-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted in English or local languages, audio-recorded, transcribed, and translated. Data were analysed using inductive content analysis following Elo and Kyngäs' approach. Findings were interpreted using Raina et al.'s multidimensional caregiving model. All participants, aged 15-49 years, were family caregivers of children with CP, aged 4-15 years. Six interrelated themes emerged: (1) sociocultural challenges, including stigma, discrimination, and harmful spiritual beliefs framing CP as witchcraft, ancestral punishment, 'snake', or 'marine spirit'; (2) economic constraints arising from inability to engage in paid work and the absence of social protections; (3) physical caregiving burden characterised by exhaustion, chronic pain, and musculoskeletal strain; (4) inadequate specialized services and health information; (5) limited social/family support; and (6) limited access rehabilitation services. These challenges intensified caregiver isolation and emotional distress. Caregiving for children with CP in Magba is shaped by intersecting sociocultural, economic, and systemic factors that extend beyond individual coping capacity. Strengthening culturally sensitive community-based rehabilitation, improving access to early diagnosis and rehabilitation, and implementing disability- and gender-responsive social protection policies are essential to reduce caregiver burden and promote inclusive child and family wellbeing in Cameroon.

Resilience is a crucial feature of the nursing workforce, particularly among those working in dialysis care. Patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) or chronic kidney disease need to be able to adjust and survive despite hardship. Studies have shown that enhanced resilience is correlated with increased life satisfaction and psychological endurance in individuals undergoing hemodialysis. Resilience is an adaptive coping capacity that can strengthen the benefit of structured care on trust while buffering reliance on interpersonal support, potentially yielding opposing moderation patterns across pathways. This study investigated the psychosocial determinants that influence the satisfaction and resilience of patients in dialysis and explored global challenges, including healthcare environment, provider-patient interactions, and medical procedures in Taiwan. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 380 stable dialysis patients who had undergone dialysis for more than 3 months without complications at a medical center in Taiwan between September and October 2022. Participants completed Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) questionnaires assessing resilience, trust, treatment satisfaction, and perceived quality of environmental conditions. The questionnaires were primarily self-administered (paper-based). The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to evaluate relationships and moderating effects. Analysis with PLS-SEM was selected for its suitability to prediction-oriented modeling with interaction (moderation) effects and complex latent constructs. Resilience significantly enhanced the positive relationship between medical processes and patient trust but negatively moderated the association between nursing care and trust. High-quality environmental facilities (featuring cleanliness, comfort, privacy, adequate physical layout, and adequate equipment in the dialysis unit) and physician interactions were crucial factors that strengthened patient resilience. Moreover, patient trust strongly predicted satisfaction with dialysis care. Demographic variables, including age, gender, and dialysis modality, were not significant predictors of satisfaction. Resilience substantially influenced patient trust and satisfaction in dialysis care. The integration of resilience-focused strategies, enhancement of care environments, and facilitation of effective communication among healthcare providers are recommended as essential measures for optimizing patient outcomes in chronic dialysis settings. Negative moderation suggests that, when resilience is high, patients may rely more extensively on internal coping and less on interpersonal reassurance, thus weakening the incremental effects of nursing support on trust. The findings may inform settings with comparable dialysis care structures and frameworks of patient-experience monitoring.

Experiences of families with children diagnosed with Beta-thalassemia: A Meta-synthesis of qualitative studies.

BackgroundAging is the primary risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD). While amyloid-beta oligomers (AβOs) accumulation is a key neuropathological process in AD, their specific effects in aged brains and how aging modulates brain response to AβOs remains poorly understood. We investigated how aging contributes to AβO-induced neurotoxicity and cognitive deficits in mice.MethodsAfter biochemical and in vitro characterizations on primary cultures of cortical neurons, AβOs or their vehicle were intracerebrally injected into both 3- and 18-month-old wild-type mice. A broad spectrum of assays including synaptic markers, neuroinflammation, apoptosis and cognitive functions was used to establish a preliminary characterization of the interplay between age and AβOs. In vivo data were analyzed using a multifactorial design (Treatment × Age), with two-way ANOVA or other appropriate statistical models.ResultsOld mice had significantly reduced synaptic proteins SNAP-25 and PSD-95, elevated neuroinflammatory markers, and increased neuronal apoptosis in hippocampus and cortex, despite showing cognitive performances similar to young mice. All brain biomarkers were worsened after AβO injection in both young and old mice. Age and AβO effects either accumulated or interacted to promote neuroinflammation and apoptosis, depending on brain areas, whereas their effects on synaptic proteins were strictly additive. Moreover, AβO injection induced only mild spatial memory deficits in young mice, in contrast with those observed in old mice in both episodic and spatial memory tests.DiscussionWhereas the young brain showed resilience to maintain memory performances after AβO injection, the coping capacities of the aging brain were exceeded by AβO effects. At the neurobiological level, age and AβO effects were mainly additive, but also acted synergistically in a brain region-dependent vulnerability pattern. This study highlights the value of incorporating aging into preclinical models to improve their translational validity and enhance their relevance for drug testing targeting early stages of sporadic AD.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13195-026-02051-2.

Community-led conservation, nature exposure, and nature-based mental health in rural Ghana.

Seven-year data trends in mental health of refugees in transit: a repeated cross-sectional study.