Perceived Community Resilience Research Articles

The role of community resilience as a protective factor in coping with mental disorders in a sample of psychiatric migrants.

Over the past decade migration to Italy has increased significantly for various reasons including armed conflicts. Generally, the migration process is exposed to different risk factors during different periods of migration, which can compromise well-being and promote the onset or exacerbation of mental disorders. A community with resources and the perception of one's community as resilient can be important protective factor in the context of migration. This study aims to understand which variables in migration predict an increase in perceived community resilience and to understand the role of community resilience in the relationship between mental disorders and subjective well-being in a sample of 100 adult migrants at the first consultation interview in the ambulatories of Psychiatry Unit. After defining the inclusion and exclusion criteria, migrants were asked to fill out self-report questionnaires to collect socio-demographic data and to assess perception of mental disorders, perceived community resilience and perception of subjective well-being. Descriptive analysis, simple regression, and moderation analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses. The results show that the variable meaning attributed to the community with reference to the host community, migration with someone, and longer duration of stay in Italy contribute to increased perceptions of community resilience. In addition, a direct negative effect of mental disorders on subjective well-being and the moderating role of community resilience in relationship between mental disorders and subjective well-being have been demonstrated. This result underscores the importance of perceived community resilience in mitigating the negative effects of mental disorders on subjective well-being. Perceiving one's community as more resilient seems to protect against the impact of mental disorders on subjective well-being. Our results support an ecological model of migrants' mental health that values the community and its resources in coping with mental disorders in the context of migration.

Cumulative trauma and perceived community resilience: A serial mediation model.

Communities affected by cumulative trauma can experience negative psychological reactions but also posttraumatic growth and community resilience, which promote adaptation and preparation for future traumatic events.This study aims to investigate the mechanisms that mediate the relationship between traumatic events and perceived community resilience.Participants were 118 Italian adults who experienced cumulative trauma and were recruited to complete an online survey. A serial multiple mediation model was estimated to assess whether the impact of the Morandi bridge collapse and posttraumatic growth mediated the relationship between the psychological impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and perceived community resilience.The impact of the collapsed bridge and posttraumatic growth in serial partially mediated the relationship between the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and perceived community resilience.The impact of cumulative trauma can be considered through an ecological perspective that considers the consequences of these events in relation to community resilience.

Community resilience across Australia towards natural hazards: an application of the Conjoint Community Resiliency Assessment Measurement.

Natural hazards can turn into disasters when not managed well. An important part of disaster risk reduction is to understand how well communities are prepared for natural hazards and how well they can cope with and recover from shocks in the long term. This research assesses self-reported community resilience and asks what makes a community resilient, using Australia as a case study. It reports on an Australian-wide online survey which included questions related to the Conjoint Community Resiliency Assessment Measurement, a subjective indicator, as well as questions about risk perception, well-being, and self-efficacy. Community resilience was found to be moderately high but scores for community leadership and preparedness were low. Perceived community resilience was positively correlated with age and those with high scores for self-efficacy and well-being. There was, as expected, an inverse relationship between reliance on external support during natural hazards and self-efficacy. The results complement previous studies which used different measures of community resilience.

All joking aside? Comparing the effects of a humorous vs. a non-humorous message strategy in building organization–public relationships and community resilience

ABSTRACT Communication scholars have studied the persuasive power of humor messages, but research provides mixed results. Also, the literature has been slow in demonstrating the practical effects of humorous messages on desired outcomes (e.g., organization–public relationships). Through an online experiment in the context of weather messages with samples of U.S. adults residing in the Southeastern U.S. (N = 209), we compared a humorous social media message designed to build relationships with the public to a non-humorous message in predicting OPRs and perceived community resilience when there is no high-impact weather on the horizon. Compared to a humorous message, a non-humorous message appeared to be more effective in increasing perceived community resilience and three dimensions of positive OPRs – trust, control mutuality, and commitment. The effects were more robust for community members with low to moderate levels of weather salience (i.e., the psychological value and importance that people have for the weather).

Resilience in urban, rural, and transitional communities: An empirical study in Guangdong, China

Increasing resilience at the community level is important for reducing the impact of disasters, particularly given the growing number of disaster events around the globe. Prior studies have paid more attention to the resilience of rural and urban communities, while a larger number of transitional communities have not received enough attention. Based on a survey in Guangdong Province, China, the 10-Item Conjoint Community Resiliency Assessment Measurement (CCRAM-10) was employed to assess the perceived community resilience of seven community types in urban, rural, and transitional communities. Multiple linear regression was also conducted, to measure the influence of community types. The results show that transitional communities have the lowest level of resilience, while urban communities have the highest. Although differences in resilience exist among different community types, they all show a high level of collective efficacy. Urban and rural communities are strong predictors of community resilience, as are the following sociodemographic categories: being male, younger, married, more highly educated, and not religious. However, differences are found in the specific dimensions. The study also provides recommendations on how physical and social infrastructure could be used to promote community resilience.

Risk or benefit? Economic and sociocultural impact of P2P accommodation on community resilience, consumer perception and behavioral intention

PurposeDrawing on the social exchange theory, stakeholder theory and extended theory of reasoned action, this study aims to investigate how consumers view the economic and sociocultural impacts (benefits/costs) of peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodations on the local community’s resilience and how consumers form behavioral intentions toward P2P accommodation as a part of sustainable tourism behavior.Design/methodology/approachWith data from a survey of 300 consumers who have previously used P2P accommodation, the authors performed partial least squares-structural equation modeling to test the proposed model and hypotheses.FindingsThe current study reveals the significant impact of the sociocultural benefits of P2P accommodations on consumers’ perceived community resilience, while economic benefits have a non-significant impact on perceived community resilience. Moreover, neither the sociocultural nor economic costs of P2P accommodation significantly reduce consumers’ perceived community resilience. Furthermore, the authors found significant positive relationships among perceived community resilience, attitude, subjective norm, personal norm and behavioral intentions.Practical implicationsP2P accommodation platforms can leverage these research findings and contribute to the community resilience and help community residents by establishing strategic collaboration with various stakeholders (e.g. governments, destination marketing organizations and non-profit organizations) for the community’s sustainable development.Originality/valueThis study systematically investigates the role of P2P accommodation in achieving community resilience by categorizing the impacts of P2P accommodation into economic and sociocultural benefits/costs.

Civilian Military Security Coordinators Coping with Frequent Traumatic Events: Spirituality, Community Resilience, and Emotional Distress.

Civilian military security coordinators are a unique kind of first responders. They live in communities that are close to the border and are responsible for the security of their community in routine and emergency situations until the arrival of the army or the police. Their role puts them at an elevated risk of experiencing emotional distress and developing PTSD. The present study, which was conducted in Israel following terror incidents over the year 2018, aimed to examine the relationships between spirituality and perceived community resilience, on the one hand, and PTSD symptoms and stress, on the other, among civilian military security coordinators. One hundred and thirteen (n = 113) civilian military security coordinators living up to 12.4 miles from the border who are routinely exposed to terror and other traumatic events completed demographic, spirituality, community resilience, PTSD, and stress questionnaires. Structural-equation-model analyses showed that spirituality was negatively associated with PTSD symptoms and stress. However, perceived community resilience was not associated with PTSD symptoms or stress. In addition, age was negatively associated with PTSD symptoms and stress. Financial situation was also negatively associated with PTSD symptoms and stress and incidence of exposure to terror and security threats was associated only with PTSD symptoms. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Building community resilience on social media to help recover from the COVID-19 pandemic

Facing the Covid outbreaks, public health researchers share a consensus that community resilience should be maintained and strengthened because it helps mitigate the physical and emotional tolls on individuals and communities. One way to achieve the goal is to build and strengthen community resilience through social media. However, social media's role in building community resilience has been poorly understood from a behavioral perspective. Guiding by uses and gratification theory and the coping literature, we build a model to examine how social media behaviors may influence community members' perceived community resilience, providing a “bottom-up” voice to deepen our understanding of community resilience and its implications for public health. The results shows that community members' social media engagement was significantly associated with their perceived community resilience. While helping others on social media led people to perceive their communities as less resilient, the use of social media for social support helped foster social capital, leading to more perceived resilience at the collective level. Overall, social media use played important roles in shaping people's perception of community resilience, helping community members and organizations evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and make improvement to better address future challenges in the times of global disasters.

Relación entre la Resiliencia Individual y Comunitaria en Población Ambientalmente Vulnerable

This research aims to analyse the relationship between Individual Resilience, as measured by the CD-RISC-10 scale (Campbell and Stein, 2007) and Community Resilience, as measured by the Index of Perceived Community Resilience (IPCR, Kulig et al., 2013), in a sample of 387 people living on the island of Bali (Indonesia). The population of this area regularly faces the consequences of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and severe floods. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the IPCR was carried out, which confirmed the multidimensional structure of Community Resilience originally proposed by its authors. Results also showed that there is a positive and moderate correlation between Individual and Community Resilience. Specifically, regression analysis showed that the three Community Resilience factors explain 32% of Individual Resilience, although Leadership followed by Community Engagement are the two factors that provide the most explanatory power.

Impact of depressive, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms in disaster victims on quality of life: The moderating effect of perceived community resilience

It has been verified that depressive, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms after trauma reduce quality of life. However, the role of community resilience in the relationship between psychological distress after trauma and quality of life is poorly understood. This study aimed to verify the moderating effect of community resilience on the relationship between depressive, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms in disaster victims and quality of life. This study used data from the Third long-term survey on the change of life of disaster victim conducted by the National Disaster Management Research Institute in 2018. A total of 2246 adult participants were included in the final analysis. Results show that depressive, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms in disaster victims were negatively related to quality of life, while community resilience in disaster victims was positively associated with quality of life. Furthermore, community resilience, with controlled sex, age, marital status, education, income, injury and disease, moderated the relationship between depressive, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms and quality of life. This study suggests that community resilience can serve as community-level stress coping resource under collective crisis, and protective factors that facilitates recovery in disaster victims.

Communities Going Virtual: Examining the Roles of Online and Offline Social Capital in Pandemic Perceived Community Resilience-Building

ABSTRACT Pandemics overthrow our fundamental understanding of social capital and perceived community resilience-building. Social capital, the very source of support and resources during natural disasters to build resilience, has become a source of danger during pandemics. Applying communication ecology as a theoretical framework, this study uncovers the role of social media in connecting social capital and perceived community resilience in the COVID-19 pandemic. Two online surveys were conducted at two different times of the pandemic to examine how people’s virtual social capital and social media engagement, compared with offline social capital, is associated with perceived community resilience. Findings indicate that, at the beginning of the pandemic, both bonding and bridging social capital, online and offline, were associated with community resilience perceptions. However, months into the pandemic, bonding social capital on social media was the only social capital resource associated with community resilience perceptions. Social media engagements were found to be critical for linking social media social capital and perceived community resilience.

Energy insecurity and community resilience: The experiences of Bedouins in Southern Israel

Energy insecurity has been recognized as a global social and public health challenge. Availability of and accessibility to energy infrastructure is a core element of community resilience—a concept that characterizes a community’s ability to promote health and well-being, and to cope with and recover from adversity. We conducted a quantitative survey in order to explore the interplay between these two experiences among residents of two types of Bedouin communities in Southern Israel: townships and informal settlements, which differ in their accessibility to energy infrastructure. We report a significant negative association between experiences of energy insecurity and perceived community resilience, especially with regard to trust in leadership and emergency preparedness. This indicates that energy insecurity is not only a personal or a household burden, but rather an issue that has broader communal and social aspects (and consequences) –one that should be tackled at the local and municipal levels. Our study deepens the current understanding of the processes and factors that may promote or impede community resilience and health by establishing a clear link between place-related physical and perceptual resources.

Disaster preparedness, perceived community resilience, and place of rural villages in northwest China

Disaster preparedness is an essential way to improve community resilience. This study examines the linkage between Chinese villagers’ adoption of disaster preparedness activities and their perception of community resilience, measured by the Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit. Survey data from three villages with different landscapes (loess plateau, plain and mountain) in northwest China with great earthquake risks but no occurrence for many years is used. Regression analyses demonstrate that the awareness related preparedness and public participation preparedness are significantly and positively associated with the community resilience assessment, while the material preparedness is not significant nor consistent across the domains of community resilience. Moreover, place (i.e., landscapes) matter in residents’ assessment of their community resilience: villagers from the plain area and mountainous area reported much higher resilience scores, compared to those who live in the loess plateau.

What Do You Mean by Community Resilience? More Assets or Better Prepared?

Understanding people's perception of community resilience to disaster is important. This study explores the correlations of household livelihood assets, the adopted household disaster preparedness activities, and individuals' assessment of community resilience. The data was collected in 2018 by surveying a group of survivors affected by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China. The CART (Community Advancing Resilience Toolkit) was used to measure individuals' perception of community resilience, while the livelihood assets included financial, physical, natural, human, and social capitals owned by the family, and the preparedness contained 13 activities. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models were used to test our hypotheses. Social capital is consistently and positively associated with the overall individuals' perceived community resilience, while the natural, human, and financial capitals' effects are not significant. The awareness and participation preparedness activities are positively correlated with the perceived community resilience, but the material preparedness activities are not. Social capital and disaster preparedness activities are critical in building community resilience. Community resilience can be achieved by making the community more connected and by providing disaster preparedness interventions.

Exploring state-level variabilities between perceived community resilience and posttraumatic stress symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: Multilevel modeling approach.

Considering the variabilities in the spread of the novel coronavirus (causing COVID-19) in the United States, the current study aimed at examining the variabilities in people's levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) across the states Specifically, the associations between PTSS and both individual-level factors (i e , perceived community resilience, symptoms of COVID-19, and demographic variables) and state-level factors (i e , state population, population density, the proportion of African American individuals, gross domestic product per capita, and a number of COVID-19 cases), as well as a potential moderation effect of a state-level factor between perceived community resilience and PTSS were examined The final sample included 548 participants nested within 46 states of the United States, who participated in the study via Amazon's Mechanical Turk between April 2 and April 9t, 2020 There were significant associations between all individual-level factors and PTSS Regarding the association between the state-level factors and PTSS, states with greater population and COVID-19 cases were associated with higher levels of PTSS, although population density was negatively associated with PTSS Furthermore, the percentage of African American individuals residing in a state moderated the relation between perceived community resilience and PTSS The moderating effect of gross domestic product per capita was also marginally significant These results imply the importance of taking into account the state-level variabilities in examining PTSS during the COVID-19 pandemic (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

The status of perceived community resilience in transitional rural society: An empirical study from central China

Abstract During China's recent social transition, rural communities have experienced rapid changes in resources, organizational structure, and governance due to urbanization, rural industrialization, and rural-urban migration. How these communities react to social adversity and uncertainty can be assessed with an index of perceived community resilience. Using a Chinese version of the perceived community resilience scale, we analyze data from a multilevel survey of two rural counties in central China. Latent profile analysis and a multilevel regression mixture model are employed to classify community resilience and to explore how the social-ecological system influences this classification. Community resilience is classified into “autonomous community”, “cooperative community”, and “authoritative community”, and we find the proportion of cooperative communities to be the highest and the proportion of autonomous communities is lowest. These results suggest that cooperation among rural residents in rural communities is increasing. How rural residents perceive community resilience is based on their individual features, which reflect the impacts of recent social changes on livelihoods. Socio-ecological variables, including geographical features, financial status, social networks, and traditional culture, have significant effects on the categories of community resilience. In today's China, rural residents have decreased their dependence on rural leaders and increased cooperation at the community level. Some autonomous communities may be unsustainable as they are populated mainly by the elderly and have insufficient resources to be adaptable.

Health-Care Services as a Platform for Building Community Resilience among Minority Communities: An Israeli Pilot Study during the COVID-19 Outbreak.

Background: Previous studies of minority groups in times of emergency have tended to focus on risk reduction or on individual resilience, overlooking the community factors that could be bolstered to promote better health and safety outcomes. The current study aimed to examine the role of health-care services in the perceived community resilience of urban and suburban Arab communities in Israel during the COVID-19 outbreak. Method: The study included 196 adults age 17–76 years, who filled out on-line questionnaires in May 2020; 112 participants lived in an urban community and 84 lived in a suburban community. Community resilience was evaluated using the Conjoint Community Resiliency Assessment Measure (CCRAM), a validated five-factor multidimensional instrument. Results: Residents of the suburban community reported higher community resilience than residents of the urban community. This difference was related to increased preparedness levels and strength of place attachment in the suburban community. Residents of suburban communities were also more satisfied and confident in health-care services than those of urban communities. Regression analysis showed that the satisfaction with primary health-care services, and not community type, significantly predicted community resilience. Conclusions: Our results support the pivotal role of primary health care in building community resilience of minority communities in times of emergency and routine.

Impact of information seeking, disaster preparedness and typhoon emergency response on perceived community resilience in Hong Kong

Gentrification and urban development in coastal megacities have increased community resilience due to better physical and socioeconomic conditions to cope with natural hazards. However, perceived community resilience, namely public belief regarding the ability of society to recover, is under-researched. In particular, specific pathways between information seeking and perceived community resilience during extreme storm events are rarely discussed. Therefore, this study applied structural equation modelling to examine the associations between the use of traditional and new information channels in typhoon-related information seeking and individual perceived community resilience, with disaster preparedness and typhoon emergency response as mediators. This analysis was based on a population-based cohort (n = 1015) and the Cantonese version of the Conjoint Community Resiliency Assessment Measure (CCRAM-10). Generally, CCRAM-10 and four of the five sub-dimensions were rated lower than average, although 89.8% of the respondents used at least two channels to acquire typhoon-related information. Direct associations were found between the use of traditional information channels (e.g., television) and greater perceived community resilience (β = 0.096; SE = 0.035), and two indirect associations were found via individual disaster preparedness behaviours and typhoon emergency response behaviours. However, we found only indirect associations between the use of new information channels (e.g., social media) and greater perceived community resilience via individual and household disaster preparedness behaviours. These associations suggest that community-based programmes should consider improving perceived community resilience by making more information-seeking channels available for residents. To increase urban resilience in coastal areas, new information channels should also be synergised with both top-down and bottom-up typhoon-related information as well as physical and socioeconomic conditions of the urban environment for urban governance and community-based disaster management.

Impacts of Community Resilience on the Implementation of a Mental Health Promotion Program in Rural Australia.

Mental health promotion programs are important in rural communities but the factors which influence program effectiveness remain unclear. The aim of this mixed-methods study was to assess how community resilience affected the implementation of a mental health promotion program in rural Tasmania, Australia. Four study communities were selected based on population size, rurality, access to local support services, history of suicide within the community, and maturity of the mental health promotion program. Data from self-report questionnaires (n = 245), including items of Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) assessment, and qualitative (focus group and interview) data from key local stakeholders (n = 24), were pooled to explore the factors perceived to be influencing program implementation. Survey results indicate the primary community resilience strengths across the four sites were related to the ‘Connection and Caring’ domain. The primary community resilience challenges related to resources. Qualitative findings suggested lack of communication and leadership are key barriers to effective program delivery and identified a need to provide ongoing support for program staff. Assessment of perceived community resilience may be helpful in informing the implementation of mental health promotion programs in rural areas and, in turn, improve the likelihood of their success and sustainability.

A Reflective Thrive-Oriented Community Resilience Scale.

There is substantial societal, policy, and research interest in community resilience as a way to better understand and enhance community thriving in the face of natural hazards, economic disruption, and other challenges. However, partly or fully formative community resilience measures potentially conflate resilience predictors and indicators, thereby constraining the assessment of factors promoting resilience. Based on a general population survey (N=1,072) in rural, coastal Oregon, USA, we evaluated a 6-item reflective thrive-oriented scale of perceived community resilience that provides a stronger foundation for assessing the contribution of resilience predictors such as community leadership or social capital. Exploratory factor analysis of the scale indicated a single-factor solution that explained 55% of the variance. The Cronbach's alpha was .83, which showed good internal consistency. Scale factor scores correlated with related constructs, with coefficients having signs and magnitudes consistent with prior research. The scale also provides a foundation for assessing general relative to specific (specified) resilience. In the present case, there was an indication of general resilience across the range of changes captured by the scale items.