Department of Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK.
Healthy Living, Department of Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8S, UK.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jul 14;17(14):5069. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17145069.
This research examines psychosocial stress associated with shale gas development through the narratives of residents and the Revised Impact of Event Scale (IES-R). We carried out our research in three of England's communities impacted by shale gas development. To gather data, we conducted qualitative interviews and engaged in participant observation in all three communities and conducted a quantitative survey of residents. From our qualitative interviews it was apparent that the residents we spoke with experienced significant levels of stress associated with shale gas development in each community. Importantly, residents reported that stress was not only a reaction to development, but a consequence of interacting with industry and decision makers. Our quantitative findings suggest that a significant portion of residents 14.1% living near the shale gas sites reported high levels of stress (i.e., scoring 24 or more points) even while the mean IES-R score of residents living around the site is relatively low (i.e., 9.6; 95% CI 7.5-11.7). We conclude that the experiences, of the three English communities, reported in the qualitative interviews and quantitative survey are consistent with the reports of stress in the United States for those residents who live in shale gas communities. We therefore suggest that psychosocial stress is an important negative externality, which needs to be taken seriously by local planning officers and local planning committees when considering exploration and development permits for shale gas.
本研究通过居民的叙述和修订后的事件影响量表（IES-R），考察了与页岩气开发相关的社会心理压力。我们在受页岩气开发影响的英格兰三个社区进行了研究。为了收集数据，我们在所有三个社区进行了定性访谈和参与式观察，并对居民进行了定量调查。从我们的定性访谈中可以明显看出，我们采访的居民在每个社区都经历了与页岩气开发相关的重大压力。重要的是，居民报告说，压力不仅是对开发的反应，也是与工业界和决策者互动的结果。我们的定量研究结果表明，即使居住在页岩气站点附近的居民的 IES-R 平均得分相对较低（即 9.6；95%置信区间为 7.5-11.7），仍有相当一部分居民（14.1%）报告了高水平的压力（即得分 24 或更高）。我们的结论是，定性访谈和定量调查中报告的三个英国社区的经验与那些居住在页岩气社区的居民在美国报告的压力一致。因此，我们建议社会心理压力是一个重要的负面外部性，当地规划官员和地方规划委员会在考虑页岩气勘探和开发许可时应认真对待。
