The Perception of Water Contamination and Risky Consumption in El Salvador from a Community Clinical Psychology Perspective

The Psychological Impact of Per- and Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Pollution in the Veneto Region, Italy: A Qualitative Study with Parents

Little is known about the psychosocial impact on people who live in polluted areas, and its consequences for the parental role have been neglected. This study addresses this gap, proposing qualitative research referring to the case of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) water pollution in the Veneto Region of Italy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the chronic exposure contamination (CEC) experience of parents. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 parents living in the so-called 'Red Area' considered to have had maximum exposure. Grounded theory was used to analyse the data. The three themes to emerge were three phases of a dynamic process: shock around the discovery (phase 1), lifestyle change (phase 2), and living with PFAS (phase 3). The two transitions (loss of innocence and environmental adaptation) linked the phases. Our findings show that PFAS CEC experience is a process whereby parents need to move from the shock of discovery to adapting to the new situation in order to incorporate a change into their daily life, especially in regard to children. Two emerging aspects that characterised the process as a constant were uncertainty and health concerns, while role strains could be a stress source in the context of CEC. We suggest introducing the notion of chronic role strain (CRS).

An Analysis of the Factors behind Rural Residents' Satisfaction with Residential Waste Management in Jiangxi, China

With the increasing environmental and health problems caused by residential solid waste (RSW), upgrading waste disposal services has become a key priority in rural areas of developing countries. Waste disposal services can be improved by incorporating the end-user evaluation of the services and the infrastructure. This study aims to analyze the respondents' satisfaction with waste disposal services and infrastructure in rural China, which has not been well documented in the previous literature. For this purpose, we applied the ordered probit model on survey data of 1064 rural residents of Jiangxi, China. In two separate models, two independent variables, i.e., users' ranking of waste disposal management services and waste disposal management infrastructure, were regressed on five sets of policy, personal, social and demographic, environmental, and village characteristics of the respondents. Our results show that rural residents have relatively high satisfaction (level four out of five) with RSW services. We found a significant correlation between all five investigated characteristics (personal, social and demographic, environmental, and village characteristics) and respondents' satisfaction with RSW management. However, the correlation differs in magnitude and direction among different respondent groups, where gender, minority status, the sanitary condition of household toilets, and treatment of toilet waste at the village level have the largest influence on satisfaction. It was found that male respondents, ethnic minorities, residents with non-farming status, and respondents with more sanitary household toilets have higher satisfaction levels. Our results provide crucial references for decision-makers to effectively promote the further optimization and improvement of rural waste disposal systems in the future.

Water Conservation and Environmental Sustainability from a Community Clinical Psychological Perspective

This study was carried out as a part of the international cooperation project “Agua Futura” for the improvement of water resource management in rural communities of Central America. Given the problem of water shortage, especially in El Salvador, the aim was to detect some key factors affecting water conservation and environmental sustainability from a community clinical psychological perspective. Ninety rural inhabitants (mean age = 46.84, SD = 17.05) of El Salvador were given a structured interview exploring their symbolizations about water conservation. Data were analyzed through computer-assisted thematic analysis, then complemented by a qualitative analysis. Several themes were identified highlighting some differences regarding the emotional salience given to water resources as a primary good, the sense of responsibility for the sustainability of water resources at the community level, as well as diverse motivations and purposes affecting water use in households. The findings support the role of emotions, representations about others’ attitudes, and defenses against vulnerability and future uncertainty about water shortage. Additionally, the shift between an individualist or collectivist perspective underlying the decision to preserve water resources represents a significant matter to be taken into account for the understanding of effective pro-environmental behaviors in the long run.

Does Individuals' Perception of Wastewater Pollution Decrease Their Self-Rated Health? Evidence from China

Background: This study used original survey data to quantitatively investigate the associations between individuals’ perception of locally present wastewater pollution and their self-rated health. Methods: This research used the data from large-scale surveys covering all the 31 provinces and equivalent administrative units in mainland China and interviewed 6112 participants. The ordered logit method was employed to estimate the models. Results: The results indicated that individuals’ perceptions of local industrial and domestic wastewater pollution significantly decrease their self-rated health. If industrial wastewater pollution was reported, the possibility of the observers indicating lower levels of self-rated current health, comparing to the past year, and comparing with peers, all increased by 26% (p < 0.001), 23% (p = 0.005), and 18% (p = 0.006), respectively. Likewise, perceived domestic wastewater pollution led to the increase by 21% (p = 0.012), 17% (p = 0.034), and 33% (p = 0.000), respectively. Meanwhile, reported industrial wastewater pollution also has an obvious negative effect on individuals’ health performance, such as being more fatigued and upset. Conclusions: The survey clearly shows that Chinese individuals who are aware of water pollution in their living environment tend to experience more negative health outcomes, which adds additional urgency to improving wastewater treatment.