Influence of community-level factors on relation between community resilience and posttraumatic growth.

Natural and man-made disasters have become much more frequent since the start of the 21st century. Disasters have numerous deleterious impacts. They disrupt individuals, families, and communities, causing displacement, food insecurity, injury, loss of livelihoods, conflict, and epidemics. The physical and mental health impact of a disaster can have extensive short- and long-term consequences. Immediately after a traumatic event, individuals may experience an array of reactions such as anxiety, depression, acute stress symptoms, shock, dissociation, allergies, injuries, or breathing problems. Given the economic and human impact of disasters, social workers are often quick to respond. Historically, the social work profession has provided services on the individual level, but initiatives have expanded to address community preparedness, response, and recovery. This article will explore the complexities of disaster response and recovery. Health and mental health impacts will be examined. Resilience and posttraumatic growth will then be discussed, exploring how individuals overcome adversity and trauma. Individual and community level preparedness mitigation, response, and recovery will explore how the field of social work has evolved as disasters have increased. Followed by an exploration of how social work has evolved to develop individual and community level preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery activities as disasters have increased. Finally, the article will examine special populations, including those with disabilities, children, indigenous people, older adults, and social service workers in all phases of disasters. As disasters grow more frequent it is vital for social work professionals to improve their efforts. We will conclude the chapter by examining the coordinated efforts the social work profession is involved in to help communities recover and even thrive after a traumatic event.

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Community Advantage and Individual Self-Efficacy Promote Disaster Preparedness: A Multilevel Model among Persons with Disabilities

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph16152779 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (15) ◽

pp. 2779 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Rachel M. Adams ◽

David P. Eisenman ◽

Deborah Glik

Keyword(s):

Self Efficacy ◽

Disaster Preparedness ◽

People With Disabilities ◽

Community Resilience ◽

Community Level ◽

Public Health Response ◽

Persons With Disabilities ◽

Community Factors ◽

Self Rated Health ◽

The Relationship

Disaster preparedness initiatives are increasingly focused on building community resilience. Preparedness research has correspondingly shifted its attention to community-level attributes that can support a community’s capacity to respond to and recover from disasters. While research at the community level is integral to building resilience, it may not address the specific barriers and motivators to getting individuals prepared. In particular, people with disabilities are vulnerable to disasters, yet research suggests that they are less likely to engage in preparedness behaviors. Limited research has examined what factors influence their ability to prepare, with no studies examining both the individual and community characteristics that impact these behaviors. Multilevel modeling thus offers a novel contribution that can assess both levels of influence. Using Los Angeles County community survey data from the Public Health Response to Emergent Threats Survey and the Healthy Places Index, we examined how social cognitive and community factors influence the relationship between disability and preparedness. Results from hierarchical linear regression models found that participants with poor health and who possessed activity limitations engaged in fewer preparedness behaviors. Self-efficacy significantly mediated the relationship between self-rated health and disaster preparedness. Living in a community with greater advantages, particularly with more advantaged social and housing attributes, reduced the negative association between poor self-rated health and preparedness. This study highlights the importance of both individual and community factors in influencing people with disabilities to prepare. Policy and programming should therefore be two-fold, both targeting self-efficacy as a proximal influence on preparedness behaviors and also addressing upstream factors related to community advantage that can create opportunities to support behavioral change while bolstering overall community resilience.

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Community resilience to natural disasters: the role of disaster entrepreneurship

Journal of Enterprising Communities People and Places in the Global Economy ◽

10.1108/jec-01-2015-0005 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 166-185 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Martina K. Linnenluecke ◽

Brent McKnight

Keyword(s):

Natural Disasters ◽

Disaster Response ◽

Community Resilience ◽

Community Level ◽

Organizational Response ◽

Illustrative Case ◽

Content Type ◽

Case Examples ◽

For Profit ◽

Latent Structures

Purpose The paper aims to examine the conditions under which disaster entrepreneurship contributes to community-level resilience. The authors define disaster entrepreneurship as attempts by the private sector to create or maintain value during and in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster by taking advantage of business opportunities and providing goods and services required by community stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach This paper builds a typology of disaster entrepreneurial responses by drawing on the dimensions of structural expansion and role change. The authors use illustrative case examples to conceptualize how these responses improve community resilience by filling critical resource voids in the aftermath of natural disasters. Findings The typology identifies four different disaster entrepreneurship approaches: entrepreneurial business continuity, scaling of organizational response through activating latent structures, improvising and emergence. The authors formulate proposition regarding how each of the approaches is related to community-level resilience. Practical implications While disaster entrepreneurship can offer for-profit opportunities for engaging in community-wide disaster response and recovery efforts, firms should carefully consider the financial, legal, reputational and organizational implications of disaster entrepreneurship. Social implications Communities should consider how best to harness disaster entrepreneurship in designing their disaster response strategies. Originality/value This research offers a novel typology to explore the role that for-profit firms play in disaster contexts and adds to prior research which has mostly focused on government agencies, non-governmental organizations and emergency personnel.

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Community resilience 2.0: Toward a comprehensive conception of community-level resilience

Community Development ◽

10.1080/15575330.2017.1369443 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 48 (5) ◽

pp. 735-751 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Lieselotte E. Vaneeckhaute ◽

Tom Vanwing ◽

Wolfgang Jacquet ◽

Bieke Abelshausen ◽

Pieter Meurs

Keyword(s):

Community Resilience ◽

Community Level

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Community-Level Efforts Target Health Disparities

Internal Medicine News ◽

10.1016/s1097-8690(08)71214-9 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 41 (21) ◽

pp. 44

Author(s):

JOEL B. FINKELSTEIN

Keyword(s):

Health Disparities ◽

Community Level

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Development and Psychometric Evaluation of a Revised Sense of Coherence Scale

European Journal of Psychological Assessment ◽

10.1027/1015-5759/a000323 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 34 (3) ◽

pp. 206-215 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Rahel Bachem ◽

Andreas Maercker

Keyword(s):

Posttraumatic Growth ◽

Factor Structure ◽

Sense Of Coherence ◽

Psychological Health ◽

Psychometric Evaluation ◽

Health Indicators ◽

Structure Stability ◽

Confirmatory Factor Analyses ◽

Reliability Factor ◽

Two Samples

Abstract. The present study introduces a revised Sense of Coherence (SOC) scale, a new conceptualization and operationalization of the resilience indicator SOC. It outlines the scale development and aims for testing its reliability, factor structure, and validity. Literature on Antonovsky’s SOC (SOC-A) was critically reviewed to identify needs for improving the scale. The scale was investigated in two samples. Sample 1 consisted of 334 bereaved participants, Sample 2 of 157 healthy controls. The revised SOC Scale, SOC-A, and theoretically relevant questionnaires were applied. Explorative and confirmatory factor analyses established a three-factor structure in both samples. The revised SOC Scale showed significant but discriminative associations with related constructs, including self-efficacy, posttraumatic growth, and neuroticism. The revised measure was significantly associated with psychological health indicators, including persistent grief, depression, and anxiety, but not to the extent as the previous SOC-A. Stability over time was sufficient. The study provides psychometric support for the revised SOC conceptualization and scale. It has several advantages over the previous SOC-A scale (unique variance, distinct factor structure, stability). The scale could be used for clinical and health psychological testing or research into the growing field of studies on resilience over the life span.

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