scholarly journals Tracking WhatsApp behaviors during a crisis: A longitudinal observation of messaging activities during the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edina YQ Tan ◽  
Russell RE Wee ◽  
Young Ern Saw ◽  
Kylie JQ Heng ◽  
Joseph WE Chin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Communication ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Longitudinal Observation ◽  
Usage Patterns

During a crisis, the messaging platform WhatsApp allows crisis-related information to be disseminated quickly. Although case studies have documented how WhatsApp has shaped crisis outcomes in both beneficial and harmful ways, little is known about: (i) how crisis-related content is spread; (ii) characteristics of users based on usage patterns; or (iii) how usage patterns link to well-being. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis, this study used the experience sampling method to track the daily WhatsApp usage of 151 adults throughout one week (capturing a total of 924 days of crisis-related communication). Each day, participants reported the extent to which they had received, forwarded, or discussed COVID-19- related content. During the week-long monitoring, most participants (94.7%) reported at least one COVID-19 related use of WhatsApp. Those who engaged with more COVID-19 content in personal chats were more likely to report having COVID-19 thoughts throughout the day. We further observed that around 1 in 10 individuals (14%) were chronic users who received and shared forwarded COVID-19 messages at a high volume; this group may represent everyday "super spreaders" of crisis-related content. Together, these findings provide an empirical base for policy makers to manage risk communication during large-scale crises.

scholarly journals Tracking private WhatsApp discourse about COVID-19: A longitudinal infodemiology study in Singapore (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edina YQ Tan ◽  
Russell RE Wee ◽  
Young Ern Saw ◽  
Kylie JQ Heng ◽  
Joseph WE Chin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Risk Communication ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Experience Sampling Method ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Data Points

BACKGROUND Worldwide, social media traffic increased following the onset of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Although the spread of COVID-19 content has been described for several social media platforms (e.g., Twitter, Facebook), little is known about how content is spread via private messaging platforms such as WhatsApp. OBJECTIVE In this study, we documented: (i) how WhatsApp is used to transmit COVID-19 content; (ii) the characteristics of WhatsApp users based on their usage patterns; and(iii) how usage patterns link to well-being. METHODS We used the experience sampling method to track day-to-day WhatsApp usage during the COVID-19 pandemic. For one week, participants reported each day the extent to which they had received, forwarded, or discussed COVID-19 content. The final dataset comprised of 924 data points collected from 151 participants. RESULTS During the week-long monitoring, most participants (143/151, 95%) reported at least one COVID-19-related use of WhatsApp. When a taxonomy was generated based on usage patterns, 1 in 10 participants (21/151, 14%) were found to have received and shared a high volume of forwarded COVID-19 content – akin to ‘super spreaders’ identified on other social media platforms. Finally, those who engaged with more COVID-19 content in their personal chats were more likely to report having COVID-19 thoughts throughout the day. CONCLUSIONS These findings provide a rare window into discourse on private messenger platforms. In turn, this can inform risk communication strategies during the pandemic. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04367363

scholarly journals The Assessment of Fear of COVID-19 among the Elderly Population: A Cross-Sectional Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (23) ◽  
pp. 5537
Author(s):  
Siddarth Agrawal ◽  
Mateusz Dróżdż ◽  
Sebastian Makuch ◽  
Alicja Pietraszek ◽  
Małgorzata Sobieszczańska ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Fear And Anxiety

The prevailing COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected the mental health and well-being of individuals. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the perceived fear of COVID-19 among older adults in Poland and identify subpopulations with the highest risk of potential mental health disorders. The study was conducted in November–December 2020 on 500 people aged ≥60 years (mean M = 67.9, standard deviation SD = 4.2). In order to collect information on participants’ characteristics and COVID-19-related information, they were asked to complete a questionnaire based on recorded telephone calls. Perceived fear of COVID-19 was measured using our generated and validated seven-item tool: “Scale of fear of COVID-19 infection”, which ranged from 7 to 35. Multiple linear regression was performed to identify factors associated with the perceived fear of COVID-19. Our results showed that the highest level of fear of COVID-19 infection was observed among women (p = 0.025) and patients taking anticoagulants (p = 0.004). Moreover, older adults with higher anxiety levels were more likely to be fearful of COVID-19 (according to the GAS-10 scale; p < 0.001). These findings may help policy makers and healthcare workers to adapt and implement better mental health strategies to help the elderly fight fear and anxiety during the prevailing pandemic.

scholarly journals A Critical Examination of Senior Housing: Promoting Equity Through Ensuring Safe Spaces

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 398-398
Author(s):  
Zach Kilgore ◽  
Michael Appel ◽  
Michele Waktins ◽  
Claudia Sanford ◽  
Dennis Archambault ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Department ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Senior Housing ◽  
Safe Spaces ◽  
The City ◽  
Health And Well Being

Abstract As affordable senior housing communities aimed to address the health and well-being concerns of residents in the COVID-19 pandemic, special attention to safety during renovation had to be addressed. This paper offers case studies from members of a city-wide advocacy group, Senior Housing Preservation-Detroit. Eighty one percent of covid deaths in the City of Detroit are those 60 and above; 81.2% of deaths have been among African Americans (Detroit Health Department, 2021). With the grief and challenge in a city hit early on in the 2020 pandemic, these case studies will highlight how Covid-19 affected planned projects in senior buildings, how stakeholders such as developers, staff and residents responded and key considerations for future emergencies affecting senior housing communities. This paper offers critical perspectives applicable to many urban landscapes in order to raise awareness to policy makers, and practitioners.

scholarly journals Perceptions of an Insufficient Government Response at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic are Associated with Lower Mental Well-Being

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiemo Fetzer ◽  
Marc Witte ◽  
Lukas Hensel ◽  
Jon Jachimowicz ◽  
Johannes Haushofer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Variation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Government Response ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The World ◽  
Large Scale Survey ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Mental Well Being

We conducted a large-scale survey covering 58 countries (N = 108,075) at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic—between March 20th and April 7th 2020—to explore how beliefs about citizens’ and government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the actions taken by governments, affected mental well-being. Our analyses reveal three findings. First, many respondents indicate that their country’s citizens and government’s response was insufficient. Second, respondents’ perception of an insufficient public and government response was associated with lower mental well-being. Third, we exploit time variation in country-level lockdown announcements, both around the world and through an event-study in the UK, and find that strong government actions—i.e., announcing a nationwide lockdown—were related to an improvement in respondents’ views of their fellow citizens and government, and to better mental well-being. These findings suggest that policy-makers may not only need to consider how their decisions affect the spread of COVID-19, but also how such choices influence the mental well-being of their population.

Social Marketing Applied to Health and Risk Messaging

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Craig Lefebvre ◽  
P. Christopher Palmedo
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Risk Communication ◽  
Social Marketing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Marketing Mix ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
International Consensus

Many ideas about best practices for risk communication share common ground with social marketing theory and practice: for example, segmentation, formative research, and a focus on behavioral outcomes. Social marketing first developed as a methodology to increase the public health impact of programs and to increase the acceptability and practice of behaviors that improve personal and social well-being. The core concepts of this approach are to be people-centered and to aim for large-scale behavior change. An international consensus definition of social marketing describes it as an integration of theory, evidence, best practices, and insights from people to be served. This integrated approach is used to design programs that are tailored to priority groups’ needs, problems, and aspirations and are responsive to a competitive environment. Key outcomes for social marketing efforts are whether they are effective, efficient, equitable, and sustainable. The 4P social marketing mix of Products, Prices, Places, and Promotion offers both strategic and practical value for risk-communication theory and practice. The addition of products, for example, to communication efforts in risk reduction has been shown to result in significantly greater increases in protective behaviors. The Cover CUNY case demonstrates how full attention to, and consideration of, all elements of the marketing mix can be used to design a comprehensive risk-communication campaign focused on encouraging college student enrollment for health insurance. The second case, from the drug safety communication arena, shows how a systems-level, marketplace approach is used to develop strategies that focus on key areas where marketplace failures undermine optimal information-dissemination efforts and how they might be addressed.

Deinstitutionalisation and the Best Interest of the Child: The Case of Rwanda and Lessons for South Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-158
Author(s):  
Shubha Murthi ◽  
Chathuri Jayasooriya
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Residential Care ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
National Guidelines ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Alternative Care ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Family Based

The ‘deinstitutionalisation’ (DI) movement, also known as ‘care reforms’, is spreading rapidly across the globe, gaining momentum with the growing understanding among both practitioners and policy makers of the harmful effects of institutionalisation on the development and well-being of children as well as the strengthening of the child rights discourse. This has led to a growing international trend towards the development of, and a strong belief in, family-based care options for children deprived of parental care, away from large-scale institutions. This trend is reflected in and supported by international frameworks guiding the care of children, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and in particular the United National Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, which was hailed in 2009. These instruments recognise that a caring and protective family is central to a child’s development, that governments should fulfil children’s right to quality care in families of origin and in alternative care and that institutionalisation of a child should be discouraged. DI processes are, however, not simple and straightforward as there are many challenges and complexities in their cross-cultural implementation. Even though unequivocally agreed by all stakeholders that the ‘best interest of the child’ should be at the heart of such care reform processes, its actual practice can often contradict such understandings as it gets submerged in numerous other considerations, constraints and challenges. This article analyses some of the dominant DI trends prevailing at present, in particular the primacy of family-based care and the misconceptions associated with the suitability of residential care, illustrated by the experience of SOS Children’s Villages in the DI process and its outcomes in Rwanda. The analysis is premised on the framework of the UN guidelines for the alternative care of children and strives to understand whether DI as it is practiced in Rwanda is aligned with the principles of ‘necessity’, ‘suitability’ and the ‘best interest of the child’ as stipulated in the Guidelines. The attempt is to draw lessons for South Asia from the success as well as the challenges faced in Rwanda, as many governments in South Asia progressively join the DI movement. It is critical for all child-focused international non-governmental organization/ non-governmental organizations (INGOs/NGOs) in Asia to understand the UNGL, learn from different experiences about the challenges of DI and prepare to engage with policy makers. One of the most important lessons from the Rwanda experience is that the ‘quality’ of care should take precedence over the ‘form’ of care, and that quality is not always guaranteed in family-based care. The shift in the positionality of the government of Rwanda and their willingness to rethink their approach to DI particularly in terms of recognising quality residential care is commendable. This needs to be taken as a precedence by other governments across the world including in South Asia—especially by those who are truly interested in ensuring the best interest of children who have lost the care of their parents.

scholarly journals Estimating geographic subjective well-being from Twitter: A comparison of dictionary and data-driven language methods

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (19) ◽  
pp. 10165-10171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kokil Jaidka ◽  
Salvatore Giorgi ◽  
H. Andrew Schwartz ◽  
Margaret L. Kern ◽  
Lyle H. Ungar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Systematic Evaluation ◽  
County Level ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Regional Effects ◽  
Word Level

Researchers and policy makers worldwide are interested in measuring the subjective well-being of populations. When users post on social media, they leave behind digital traces that reflect their thoughts and feelings. Aggregation of such digital traces may make it possible to monitor well-being at large scale. However, social media-based methods need to be robust to regional effects if they are to produce reliable estimates. Using a sample of 1.53 billion geotagged English tweets, we provide a systematic evaluation of word-level and data-driven methods for text analysis for generating well-being estimates for 1,208 US counties. We compared Twitter-based county-level estimates with well-being measurements provided by the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index survey through 1.73 million phone surveys. We find that word-level methods (e.g., Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count [LIWC] 2015 and Language Assessment by Mechanical Turk [LabMT]) yielded inconsistent county-level well-being measurements due to regional, cultural, and socioeconomic differences in language use. However, removing as few as three of the most frequent words led to notable improvements in well-being prediction. Data-driven methods provided robust estimates, approximating the Gallup data at up to r = 0.64. We show that the findings generalized to county socioeconomic and health outcomes and were robust when poststratifying the samples to be more representative of the general US population. Regional well-being estimation from social media data seems to be robust when supervised data-driven methods are used.

scholarly journals #lockdown: Network-Enhanced Emotional Profiling in the Time of COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Stella ◽  
Valerio Restocchi ◽  
Simon De Deyne
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Discourse ◽  
Unexpected Events ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Psychological Burden ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Mental Well Being ◽  
Cognitive Data

The COVID-19 pandemic forced countries all over the world to take unprecedented measures, like nationwide lockdowns. To adequately understand the emotional and social repercussions, a large-scale reconstruction of how people perceived these unexpected events is necessary but currently missing. We address this gap through social media by introducing MERCURIAL (Multi-layer Co-occurrence Networks for Emotional Profiling), a framework which exploits linguistic networks of words and hashtags to reconstruct social discourse describing real-world events. We use MERCURIAL to analyse 101,767 tweets from Italy, the first country to react to the COVID-19 threat with a nationwide lockdown. The data were collected between the 11th and 17th March, immediately after the announcement of the Italian lockdown and the WHO declaring COVID-19 a pandemic. Our analysis provides unique insights into the psychological burden of this crisis, focussing on—(i) the Italian official campaign for self-quarantine (#iorestoacasa), (ii) national lockdown (#italylockdown), and (iii) social denounce (#sciacalli). Our exploration unveils the emergence of complex emotional profiles, where anger and fear (towards political debates and socio-economic repercussions) coexisted with trust, solidarity, and hope (related to the institutions and local communities). We discuss our findings in relation to mental well-being issues and coping mechanisms, like instigation to violence, grieving, and solidarity. We argue that our framework represents an innovative thermometer of emotional status, a powerful tool for policy makers to quickly gauge feelings in massive audiences and devise appropriate responses based on cognitive data.

scholarly journals Regenerating Stormwater Infrastructure into Biophilic Urban Assets. Case Studies of a Sump Garden and a Sump Park in Western Australia

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5461
Author(s):  
Agata Cabanek ◽  
Maria Elena Zingoni de Baro ◽  
Joshua Byrne ◽  
Peter Newman
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Local Case ◽  
Regenerative Design ◽  
Stormwater Infiltration

The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the old modernist engineering technologies, such as single purpose stormwater infiltration basins, can be transformed into quality environments that integrate ecological and social functions and promote multiple sets of outcomes, including biodiversity restoration, water management, and cultural and recreational purposes, among other urban roles. Using the principles and theories of biophilic urbanism, regenerative design, and qualitative inquiry, this article analyzes and discusses the actors, drivers, strategies, constraints, and values motivating the stakeholders to reinvent Perth’s stormwater infrastructure through two local case studies. The “WGV sump park” was developed through a public-private partnership, including professional consultants with community input, and the “Green Swing sump garden” was an owner-builder community-driven project involving volunteers, who maintain it. The results of this research suggest that both projects are successful at managing stormwater in a way that creates multiple community and biodiversity benefits. Communities could gain improved access to nature, social interaction, health, and well-being if local governments support these alternative approaches to regenerate underutilized stormwater infrastructure by promoting biophilic interventions. Mainstreaming this design approach identified some issues that may arise during the implementation of this biophilic urban approach, and the paper suggests ways to enhance the wider delivery of regenerative and biophilic design into urban planning, involving volunteer delivery and maintenance for small scale projects and fully professional assessments for large scale projects.

Immigrant Youth in Germany

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 158-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Frankenberg ◽  
Katharina Kupper ◽  
Ruth Wagner ◽  
Stephan Bongard
Keyword(s):  
School System ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Ethnic Discrimination ◽  
Emotional And Behavioral Problems ◽  
Sociocultural Adaptation ◽  
Age Related ◽  
German School ◽  
Transcultural Adaptation

This paper reviews research on young migrants in Germany. Particular attention is given to the question of how Germany’s history of migration, immigration policies, and public attitude toward migrants influence the transcultural adaptation of children and adolescents from different ethnic backgrounds. We combine past research with the results of new empirical studies in order to shed light on migrants’ psychological and sociocultural adaptation. Studies comparing young migrants and their German peers in terms of psychological well-being, life satisfaction, and mental health outcome suggest higher rates of emotional and behavioral problems among migrants of most age groups. With regard to adolescent populations between the ages of 14 and 17 years, however, the existence of differences between migrants and natives appears to be less clear. Research has also yielded inconsistent findings regarding the time trajectory of transcultural adaptation among adolescents. The coincidence of acculturation and age-related change is discussed as a possible source of these inconsistencies. Further, we provide an overview of risk and protective factors such as conflicting role expectations and ethnic discrimination, which may cause heightened vulnerability to adverse adaptation outcomes in some groups. Large-scale studies have repeatedly shown migrants of all age groups to be less successful within the German school system, indicating poor sociocultural adaptation. Possible explanations, such as the idiosyncrasies of the German school system, are presented. Our own studies contribute to the understanding of young migrants’ adaptation process by showing that it is their orientation to German culture, rather than the acculturation strategy of integration, that leads to the most positive psychological and sociocultural outcomes. The paper concludes by discussing implications for future cross-cultural research on young migrants and by suggesting recommendations for multicultural policies.

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