The Sources of Belief in Personal Capability: Antecedents of Self-Efficacy in Private Adaptation to Flood Risk

An organizing framework to break down Western-centric views of knowledge in North-South research

Global challenges, such as climate change, persistent poverty, and food insecurity are complex problems. These societal, environmental, and economic challenges cross scientific disciplines, communities, and geographies, requiring interdisciplinary, North-South solutions. Nevertheless, prevailing sustainability science responses are Western-centric. Some seminal studies have attempted to understand and engage with diverse knowledge systems. These include decolonial and Indigenous methodologies, such as "Two-Eyed Seeing", which emphasizes the importance of using both Western and Indigenous knowledge to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the world, and participatory action research, which highlights the importance of involving participants in the research process and promoting social change through collaborative effort. However, apart from in-country research collaborations with traditional Indigenous knowledge, most North-South studies overlook the role or influence of Western-centric views and therefore fail to recognize and incorporate diverse worldviews and knowledge systems. This may, in part, reflect the tendency to categorize research into disciplinary silos, but more likely is the unintentional, yet prevalent, view that Western science is "objective and neutral." As more scholars from multiple disciplines and geographies focus on interdisciplinary North-South research, it is critical that researchers reflect on dominant research approaches and knowledge production. Studies can co-construct, reproduce, or control the forms of knowledge generated-whether intentional or unintentional. This paper presents an organizing framework to help researchers navigate, understand, and engage with diverse forms of knowledge in undertaking North-South research. The framework draws on empirical observations from the authors' interdisciplinary research and from empirical cross-cultural literature. It comprises three contextual levels of influence, featuring guiding principles and subsequent practical actions researchers can use to navigate the complexities of knowledge co-construction in North-South research.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11625-024-01478-6.

Geographic location or experience: Using PRISM to understand how people seek flood risk information

Flooding is increasing worldwide, and with climate change, people need help understanding these changing conditions and that their flood risk may also change. This study extends the planned risk information seeking model (PRISM) into the flood risk domain and examines the antecedents that explain flood risk information seeking behavior. Using a survey reflective of the population in the state of Texas (N = 1079), this study includes an operationalization of risk perception specific to the complexity of floods and explores two key moderators in the PRISM model. Findings suggest that using PRISM to elaborate flood risk information seeking behaviors explains 48% of the variance in information seeking intent and 37% of the variance in affective risk perception. Using multigroup modeling, the findings also reveal that simply living in an area at high risk for floods does not significantly impact any relationships in the model. However, having experience with flooding increases the strength of risk perception paths-in particular, perceived probability of flood risk-and better explains flood risk information seeking. Suggestions for how to use communication to influence risk perceptions and information seeking, as well as future directions for research, are also discussed.

Effects of Cognitive Appraisals on Perceived Self-Efficacy and Distress during the COVID-19 Lockdown: An Empirical Analysis Based on Structural Equation Modeling

During the COVID-19 lockdown, individuals and households had to responsibly manage the difficulties and problems caused by the restrictions on their mobility, such as the interruptions to work schedules, insecure food supplies, and the procurement of services and health care. The perceptions of risk as well as the fear of disease were strongly linked to worry, defined as a sequence of thoughts that evoke negative emotions and elevated levels of anxiety and distress. This study evaluated how different cognitive appraisals of an individual's sources of worry could influence their perceived self-efficacy and directly or indirectly moderate their perceived general distress. A sample of 544 participants completed a survey that included questions based on the generalized self-efficacy scale, the sources of concern during the epidemic, the cognitive appraisal scale in emergency, and perceived discomfort. Subsequently, a structural-equation-modeling (SEM) analysis was performed to test the moderating role of cognitive appraisals and perceived self-efficacy on participants' overall distress during a lockdown. Overall, the model reported acceptable fit values and confirmed the hypotheses of the study. An individual's worries activated either a dysfunctional threat appraisal, which prompted a fear-and-closure response that then increased their overall state of distress; or two other functional appraisals (i.e., adaptive or supportive) that contributed to significantly improving the individual's self-efficacy. Higher self-efficacy was shown to be associated with lower levels of perceived distress. For the purposes of prevention and distress containment, it would be appropriate to promote psycho-educational interventions that promote the adoption of appraisal strategies that are functional and beneficial for perceived self-efficacy.

Uncertainty in individual risk judgments associates with vulnerability and curtailed climate adaptation

Risk assessments are key for the effective management of potential environmental threats. Across probabilistic phenomena, climate change is an exemplar of paramount uncertainties. These uncertainties have been embraced in supporting governments' decisions; yet receive scarce attention when studying individual behavior. Analyzing a survey conducted in the USA, China, Indonesia, and the Netherlands (N=6242), we explore socio-economic, psychological, and behavioral differences between individuals who can subjectively assess risks, and those who are risk-uncertain. We find that risk-uncertain individuals are more likely to belong to societal subgroups classically considered as vulnerable, and have reduced capacities and intentions to adapt to hazards-specifically floods. The distinctions between risk-aware and risk-uncertain individuals indicate that ignoring differences in individuals' capacity to assess risks could amount to persistent vulnerability and undermine climate-resilience efforts. While we use floods emblematically, these finding have consequences for the standard practice of dropping or bootstrapping uncertain responses, irrespective of the hazard, with implications for environmental management.

One and done? Exploring linkages between households' intended adaptations to climate-induced floods

As climate change increases the probability and severity of natural hazards, the need for coordinated adaptation at all levels of society intensifies. Governmental-level adaptation measures are essential, but insufficient in the face of growing risks, necessitating complementary action from households. Apprehending the drivers of household adaptation is critical if governments are to stimulate protective behavior effectively. While past work has focused on the behavioral drivers of household adaptation, little attention has been paid to understanding the relationships between adaptation measures themselves-both previously undergone and additionally (planned) intended adaptation(s). Using survey data (N = 4,688) from four countries-the United States, China, Indonesia, and the Netherlands-we utilize protection motivation theory to account for the behavioral drivers of household adaptation to the most devastating climate-driven hazard: flooding. We analyze how past and additionally intended adaptations involving structural modification to one's home affect household behavior. We find that both prior adaptations and additionally intended adaptation have a positive effect on intending a specific adaptation. Further, we note that once links between adaptations are accounted for, the effect that worry has on motivating specific actions, substantially lessens. This suggests that while threat appraisal is important in initially determining if households intend to adapt, it is households' adaptive capacity that determines how. Our analysis reveals that household structural modifications may be nonmarginal. This could indicate that past action and intention to pursue one action trigger intentions for other adaptations, a finding with implications for estimating the speed and scope of household adaptation diffusion.

Cognitive Factors of Weight Management During Pregnancy Among Chinese Women: A Study Applying Protective Motivation Theory

PURPOSE

This study aimed to explore the psychological cognitive factors of weight management during pregnancy based on protective motivation theory (PMT).

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Participants were recruited at the Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China.

SAMPLE

A sample of 533 pregnant women was enrolled in the study.

MEASURES

Measures was a self-design questionnaire, comprising of demographics, cognition of weight management during pregnancy, and weight management behavior during pregnancy.

ANALYSIS

Structural equation modeling was used to examine the weight management's cognitive factors, path relationships, and the influence of maternal characteristics.

RESULTS

Self-efficacy cognition could promote gestational weight management behavior (b = .22, P < .001), but response cost cognition hindered gestational weight management (b = -.21, P < .001). Parity moderated pregnant women's self-efficacy cognition (diff b = .24, P < .01), where the self-efficacy of nullipara promoted weight management behaviors, but the self-efficacy of multipara had no significant effect. Also, the response cost factors stably existed in primipara and multipara groups, with multipara, being positively affected by response efficacy (b = .15, P < .05).

CONCLUSION

Findings highlight the need for psychological and cognitive interventions. Intervention strategies that focus on enabling women to correctly understand response cost and make an active response, improve self-efficacy cognition especially among primipara, and strengthening multipara's response efficacy among pregnant are required.

Contextualizing cross national patterns in household climate change adaptation

Understanding social and behavioral drivers and constraints of household adaptation is essential to effectively address increasing climate-induced risks. Factors shaping household adaptation are commonly treated as universal; despite an emerging understanding that adaptations are shaped by social, institutional, and cultural contexts. Using original surveys in the United States, China, Indonesia, and the Netherlands (N=3,789) - we explore variations in factors shaping households' adaptations to flooding, the costliest hazard worldwide. We find that social influence, worry, climate change beliefs, self-efficacy, and perceived costs exhibit universal effects on household adaptations, despite countries' differences. Disparities occur in the effects of response efficacy, flood experience, beliefs in governmental actions, demographics, and media, which we attribute to specific cultural or institutional characteristics. Climate adaptation policies can leverage on the revealed similarities when extrapolating best practices across countries, yet should exercise caution as context-specific socio-behavioral drivers may discourage or even reverse household adaptation motivation.

The Impact of Experiences and Perceptions of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) on Water-Related Biosecurity Behaviour in Rural Vietnam

BACKGROUND

In Southeast Asia from 2004 to 2006, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) resulted in culling 45 million birds and jeopardizing sustainable agricultural production. HPAI is highly virulent; small-scale farms present a high-risk environment for disease transmission between animals and humans. We investigated how attitudes toward HPAI influence water-related biosecurity mitigation behaviors on small-scale farms in Vietnam using the conceptual framework Social Cognitive Theory.

METHOD

We analyzed a secondary cross-sectional data set from northern (Thai Binh) and southern (An Giang) provinces in Vietnam, describing a stratified randomized selection of 600 small-scale farmers who were interviewed using questionnaires and in-person interviews. Logistic regression analysis and odds ratios were used to examine relationships between factors influencing HPAI attitudes, social norms, perceived importance, and behaviors (α = 0.10) RESULTS: Concern about the severity of HPAI was significantly associated with increased perceived importance for all water management biosecurity methods (p < 0.01). Media and/or peer influence had negative effects on perceived importance to practice water-related biosecurity (p < 0.10). High importance of practice water-related biosecurity resulted in high uptake (p < 0.05). Past experiences with HPAI were significant in predicting perceived importance; none were significant in describing behavior uptake.

DISCUSSION

Biosecurity guidelines may not be consistent with management styles of Vietnamese small-scale farms; perceived importance of a behavior may be an important mediating variable. Gaps exist in uptake of water management practices as biosecurity for HPAI, potentially negatively affected by peer and media influence. Our results should be of interest to public health and policy authorities addressing HPAI mitigation.

Place Attachment and Household Disaster Preparedness: Examining the Mediation Role of Self-Efficacy

Household preparedness is essential for resilience-building and disaster risk reduction. Limited studies have explored the correlations between place attachment, self-efficacy, and disaster preparedness, especially in the east Asian cultural context. This study investigates the mediating role of self-efficacy between place attachment and disaster preparedness based on data from the 2018 Shandong General Social Survey (N = 2181) in China. We categorized the preparedness behaviors into three specific clusters: material, behavioral and awareness preparedness. Multiple linear regressions and the Sobel Goodman tests were employed to estimate the correlations with the control of necessary confounding variables such as disaster experience, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The results demonstrate that both the place attachment and self-efficacy are correlated with higher degrees of overall preparedness and all three types of preparedness, and self-efficacy plays a mediating role between place attachment and disaster preparedness. These findings highlight the importance of promoting place attachment and self-efficacy in the advocacies and outreach activities of disaster preparedness.