Joy J Lijo Kochakadan, Ramachandran Manu, George Sanju
Rajagiri Centre of Behavioural Sciences and Research, Rajagiri College of Social Sciences (Autonomous), Rajagiri, Kalamassery, Kochi, Kerala, India.
Department of Psychology, Prajyoti Niketan College, (Govt. Aided and Affiliated to the University of Calicut), Pudukad, Thrissur Dt., Kerala, India.
J Neurosci Rural Pract. 2021 Jan;12(1):137-144. doi: 10.1055/s-0040-1721566. Epub 2021 Jan 29.
In 2018 and 2019, there were floods in the coastal regions of Kerala. Many individuals and families were victims on both these occasions; these floods had devastating impact on individual psychological wellbeing, their financial stability, and on overall family wellbeing. Furthermore, many people in vulnerable geographical areas still live in uncertainty and fear. In this context, our study examined whether continuous victimization of natural calamities, like floods in Kerala, leads to the development of learned helplessness and decreased psychological wellbeing among those affected. We also studied whether proenvironment care behavior increased among flood-affected individuals. We studied 374 heads of families in Kerala, selected through the Quota sampling method. They belonged to the following three groups: (1) flood-affected only once (OFA, = 124), (2) flood-affected twice (TFA, = 124), and (3) never flood-affected (NFA, = 124) households. The key variables of learned helplessness, psychological wellbeing, and proenvironment care behavior were measured using learned helplessness scale, psychological wellbeing scale, and the environmental behavior scale, respectively. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to analyze the data for independent groups. Learned helplessness was found to be high among the TFA group. Psychological wellbeing and proenvironment care behavior were high among the OFA group as compared with the TFA group. The NFA group had higher learned helplessness in comparison to the OFA group, and psychological wellbeing and proenvironment care behavior were low when compared with the TFA group. We conclude that surviving a moderate amount of risk is perhaps necessary for better psychological wellbeing and that too many or too few risks in life are detrimental to good psychological health. Immediate psychological support among victims of natural calamities and periodic examination of well-being and psychological interventions among people who are vulnerable for frequent victimization of natural calamities have to part of disaster management related to natural calamities.
2018年和2019年，喀拉拉邦沿海地区发生了洪水。许多个人和家庭在这两次洪灾中都成了受害者；这些洪水对个人心理健康、他们的经济稳定以及整个家庭的幸福产生了毁灭性影响。此外，许多处于易受灾地理区域的人仍然生活在不确定性和恐惧之中。在此背景下，我们的研究调查了像喀拉拉邦洪水这样的自然灾害的持续受害是否会导致受影响人群产生习得性无助并降低心理健康水平。我们还研究了受洪水影响的个体的亲环境关爱行为是否有所增加。
我们通过配额抽样方法在喀拉拉邦研究了374户家庭的户主。他们分为以下三组：（1）仅遭受过一次洪水影响的家庭（OFA，n = 124），（2）遭受过两次洪水影响的家庭（TFA，n = 124），以及（3）从未遭受过洪水影响的家庭（NFA，n = 124）。分别使用习得性无助量表、心理健康量表和环境行为量表来测量习得性无助、心理健康和亲环境关爱行为这些关键变量。
采用Kruskal-Wallis检验对独立组的数据进行分析。
结果发现，TFA组的习得性无助程度较高。与TFA组相比，OFA组的心理健康和亲环境关爱行为水平较高。与OFA组相比，NFA组的习得性无助程度更高，与TFA组相比，其心理健康和亲环境关爱行为水平较低。
我们得出结论，经历适度的风险可能对更好的心理健康是必要的，而生活中风险过多或过少都不利于良好的心理健康。自然灾害受害者的即时心理支持以及对易频繁遭受自然灾害的人群进行定期的幸福感检查和心理干预必须成为与自然灾害相关的灾害管理的一部分。
