Slum dwellers' occupational activities and health implications

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Preko ◽  
Anthony Nkrumah Agyabeng ◽  
James Kwame Mensah

PurposeThe literature has acknowledged that good health is a crucial component of well-being. This study explores the country-specific understanding of slum dwellers' occupational activities and their environmental behavior.Design/methodology/approachUsing the environmentally responsible behavior model, the study utilized exploratory qualitative approach to purposely sample 35 respondents, who responded to health-related behaviors through in-depth interviews.FindingsFindings show that respondents are engaged in diverse socio-economic occupational activities such as selling of cooked and uncooked food in polythene bags, selling of sachet water and burning the waste generated from these activities in the slum environment. In addition, the study found specific occupational activities of masons, carpenters, tilers, salon beauticians, scrap dealers and unhygienic waste disposal in the slums. Finally, this study uncovered divided opinions in terms of respondents' environmental responsibility and awareness of environmental ramifications. Therefore, issues such as health hazards, unhealthy environment and soil deterioration are common at the slum dwellings.Research limitations/implicationsThe study findings and the conclusion drawn cannot be generalized to represent the entire population of slum dwellers in Ghana due to the qualitative methodology employed.Practical implicationsThis study revealed a country-specific understanding of the environmentally responsible behavior of slum dwellers based on their occupational activities, which can inform health policies.Originality/valueThe outcome of this study advanced contextual culturally specific understanding, concerning health-related behavior of slum dwellers, which is important to policymakers and practitioners in contexts.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8522
Author(s):  
Hoang Viet Nguyen ◽  
Wilson Dang ◽  
Hoang Nguyen ◽  
Thi Nguyen Hong Nguyen ◽  
Thi My Nguyet Nguyen ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 crisis has challenged and generated severe impact on the global society, economy, and environment. Under this pandemic context, governments and organizations around the world have issued and strengthened environmental policies and regulations to protect the environment and human health. However, the extant knowledge about how people’s interpretation of environmental policies and regulations influence their psychological well-being in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is still limited. This study, therefore, investigates the impact of environmental interpretation on psychological well-being with the mediating role of environmentally responsible behavior and the moderating role of psychological contract violation. Using the data from a large sample of 960 residents in China, results of structural equation modeling show a positive relationship between environmental interpretation and psychological well-being, and this relationship is mediated by environmentally responsible behavior. Notably, psychological contract violation has a moderating effect on the indirect effect of environmental interpretation on psychological well-being via environmentally responsible behavior. These findings have several important implications for policymakers in environmental sustainability and pandemic planning.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amirreza Rezaei ◽  
Saba Ahmadi ◽  
Hamid Karimi

Purpose This study aims to determine the effect of online social networks on university students’ environmentally responsible behavior (ERB). This research aimed to develop and test a behavioral model in the context of online social networks, where students’ attitudes, knowledge and behavior influence their ERB. Design/methodology/approach This study used a quasi-experiment with a pretest-posttest design and a random parallelization control group. The research used a questionnaire to assess ERB, environmental attitudes and environmental knowledge. The researcher randomly assigned 120 students to an experimental and a control group of equal size. Both groups initially completed a pretest. The experimental group was trained in environmental issues over four months (an academic semester) via an online social network. Findings The findings indicated that the social network had a significant effect on motivating ERB. Additionally, it improved environmental attitudes. According to the results, online social networks such as Facebook can significantly aid in teaching and learning environmental issues in formal academic settings. Originality/value Online social networks facilitated significant cognitive progress in environmental education. The primary objective is to educate students about ERB.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yıldırım Yılmaz ◽  
Elham Anasori

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of individuals' mindfulness and enjoyment of nature on environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) through mediating effect of sustainable attitude (SA).Design/methodology/approachData were collected from residents of Antalya through convenience sampling. Four hundred and five residents participated in the study. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsMindfulness was found effective for sustainable attitude of residents, but it has no significant direct effect to ERB. There is an indirect-only mediation effect of SA between mindfulness and ERB. Enjoyment of nature affects the sustainable attitude and ERB significantly and positively. The findings show that SA also offers a complementary mediation between enjoyment of nature and ERB.Research limitations/implicationsThe study closes the void by investigating the psychological aspects of individuals among residents of a tourist hub to create sustainable attitude, acts and responsible behavior toward environment. In particular, as the predicting role of mindfulness on ERB was not significant, further studies needed to investigate the effects of mindfulness on the environmental behavior and attitude.Practical implicationsDestination management organizations can consider more focusing on the environmentally responsible behavior of residents, which can play a pivotal role in attaining sustainable tourism development in destinations. By this regard, increasing the sustainable attitude and enjoyment of nature of residents through applying various campaigns would help policies and strategies aiming the conservation of the environment in the destination.Originality/valueSearching the impact of mindfulness on the SA and ERB and finding the indirect-only mediation effect of SA between mindfulness, ERB are novel contributions of this paper.


2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 661-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osamu Iwata

Questionnaires containing five multi-item 5-point scales were administered to 153 Japanese male and female undergraduates. Data of each of the scales were factor analyzed and, as a rule, items with a factor loading of .40 or over were selected. The scale for coping style produced three factors: avoidance, self-deceptive optimism and problem solving. Each of the other four scales produced one factor. Using the total score for each scale or factor, multiple regression analysis was applied to environmentally responsible behavior with six predictors entered simultaneously. Self-deceptive optimism and willingness to accept sacrifices for global environmental protection proved to be significant predictors of environmentally responsible behavior, but the four other predictors did not.


2016 ◽  
Vol 36 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 36-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanna Moilanen ◽  
Vanessa May ◽  
Eija Räikkönen ◽  
Eija Sevón ◽  
Marja-Leena Laakso

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to particularly focus on lone-mother families, comparing the childcare-related challenges experienced by working lone mothers and coupled mothers in three European countries in the context of a 24/7 economy and non-standard working hours (e.g. evening, night and weekend work). Design/methodology/approach – This study utilises survey data from Finnish, Dutch and British working mothers (n=1,106) collected as part of the “Families 24/7” research project. Multivariate regression analysis is used to analyse the associations between childcare-related challenges, maternal non-standard working, lone motherhood and country of residence. Findings – The results indicated similar results across the three countries by showing that working lone mothers experience childcare-related challenges more often compared with coupled mothers. Furthermore, an increase in maternal non-standard working associated positively with increased childcare-related challenges in both lone mother and coupled families but lone motherhood did not moderate this association. The findings suggest that, regardless of family form, families in all three countries struggle with childcare arrangements when the mother works during non-standard hours. This possibly relates to the inadequate provision of state-subsidised and flexible formal childcare during non-standard hours and to the country-specific maternal work hours cultures. Originality/value – This study responds to the need for comparative research on the reconciliation of maternal non-standard working and childcare with self-collected data from three European welfare states. The importance of the study is further highlighted by the risks posed to the maintenance of maternal employment and family well-being when reconciliation of work and childcare is unsuccessful, especially in lone-mother families.


2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (10) ◽  
pp. 1119-1144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Maria Geiger ◽  
Johannes Keller

The positive relation of biospheric and altruistic values as well as the negative relation of egoistic and hedonic values to environmentally responsible behavior, are established findings in environmental psychological research. Recent findings revealed that compassion, the sensitivity to the suffering of other individuals, is also relevant for proenvironmental intentions. We tested the role of compassion in combination with universal altruistic, biospheric, egoistic, and hedonic values concerning an environmentally responsible behavior with an explicit social and hedonic component: sustainable fashion consumption. In a large survey study ( n = 981), we found that compassion was positively linked to sustainable purchase criteria. The manipulation of compassion in an online study ( n = 197) resulted in a small, positive effect on the willingness to pay extra for fair trade clothes. Moreover, we found that hedonic values showed a consistent negative relation to sustainable fashion consumption in both studies, thus corroborating former research on the critical relevance of hedonic values in the context of proenvironmental behavior.


2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanna Maria Krisor ◽  
Jens Rowold

Purpose – Previous research on the work-family nexus has tended to concentrate on childcare responsibilities. This neglects consideration of an increasing population of employees who care for dependents such as elders, impaired partners or disabled children. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate organizational and personal resources as antecedents of work-family conflict (WFC) and irritation in a sample of employed family caregivers. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 508 employees within one organization who had informal family caregiving responsibilities. Findings – The results indicate that a supportive work-family culture was an important resource for reducing WFC and health-related self-efficacy reduced irritation. In sum, when a company fosters a family-friendly culture that includes working in a constructive and understanding manner with employees who have informal family caregiver responsibilities, it becomes easier for the employees to integrate the demands of work and family demands. Moreover, health-related self-efficacy is an important resource that can improve stress and future researchers should give it greater consideration. Originality/value – This study contributes to existing literature by the identification of personal and organizational resources of informal family caregivers with the aim to reduce their stress experiences.


Traditiones ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-139
Author(s):  
Saša Babič

The article examines the concept and metaphorical meaning of waste and dirt in short folklore forms, including archival material (phrasemes, proverbs, and beliefs) and also internet memes as a new, contemporary folklore form. Waste and dirt are traditionally conceptually linked to metaphors of unwanted, used, lower-quality, or even immoral. Slovenian proverbs and phrasemes, on the other hand, do not thematize waste management or handling dirt; only beliefs show some part of this. New forms, on the other hand, emphasize environmental pollution directly, using concepts of waste and pollution combined in words and images intended to persuade the viewer or recipient to change their behavior into environmentally responsible behavior. Waste and dirt reveal themselves as important metaphorical elements, as well as a contemporary topic for new folklore genres.


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