The Role of Gender in Preparedness and Response Behaviors towards Flood Risk in Serbia

Adverse outcomes from 2014 flooding in Serbia indicated problematic response phase management accentuated by a gender imbalance. For this reason, we investigated the risk perceptions and preparedness of women and men regarding these types of events in Serbia. Face-to-face interviews, administered to 2500 participants, were conducted across 19 of 191 municipalities. In light of the current findings, men seemed to be more confident in their abilities to cope with flooding, perceiving greater individual and household preparedness. By contrast, women displayed a deeper understanding of these events. Perhaps owing to a deeper level of understanding, women demonstrated more household-caring attitudes and behaviors and were more prone to report a willingness to help flood victims at reception centers. Emergency management agencies and land planners should account for these differences in gender awareness and preparedness. Based on these findings, doing so may increase citizen participation and shared responsibility under flood hazard scenarios

Mental Well-Being in UK Higher Education During Covid-19: Do Students Trust Universities and the Government?

This paper draws upon the concept of recreancy to examine the mental well-being of university students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Briefly, recreancy is loss of societal trust that results when institutional actors can no longer be counted on to perform their responsibilities. Our study of mental well-being and recreancy focuses on the role of universities and government regulators within the education sector. We surveyed 600 UK students attending 161 different public higher education providers in October 2020 during a time when many UK students were isolated in their residences and engaged in online learning. We assessed student well-being using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (scored 7–35) and found the mean score to be 19.9 [95% confidence interval (CI) 19.6, 20.2]. This level of well-being indicates that a significant proportion of UK students face low levels of mental well-being. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicates that high recreancy—measured as a low trust in universities and the government—is associated with low levels of mental well-being across the student sample. While these findings are suggestive, they are also important and we suggest that government and university leaders should not only work to increase food and housing security during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also consider how to combat various sector trends that might intensify recreancy

Expanding the Known World: Routines that Influence International Student Integration

This dissertation presents three related studies examining institutional routines and their impact on international students at a large public university. The studies consider factors which can influence international students’ ability to overcome acculturative stress and integrate with a sense of belonging and safety.The case study in Chapter Two focuses on an international student services office within the large public university. The ways in which organizational routines have changed are interpreted here in response to a surging international student population and changing Federal policies regarding immigration. Feldman’s generative model of organizational routines encourages the examination of routines as areas of growth. The chapter examines routinized actions used by the international office (OISS), specifically focusing on Feldman’s performative model. In addition to routinized action theory, this chapter proposes applying anxiety/uncertainty management theory (AUM) to the evaluation of organizational routines. Examination of routines is placed in the context of a conceptual overview based on literature about routines as sources of stability and change. Reducing uncertainty, expanding networks, and communicating expectations may lay the groundwork for an integrated student body, reduced acculturative stress for international students, and increased social capital.Chapter Three explores the question: How do international students in the U.S. use social network sites (SNS)? Connections made through home-country SNS lessen student stress by maintaining establish social supports. At the same time, anxiety/uncertainty management theory (AUM) suggests reliance on familiar home-country SNS reduces motivation to integrate in the host country. This conceptual overview draws upon several recent studies to consider the ways college students use social media, how international students adapt to host-country networks (or not), and the potential for SNSs to be an effective communication channel for the host institution, with special consideration for its potential and limitations for emergency communications. A proposal to develop a SNS-based structured arrival program is included.Chapter Four addresses institutional communications and international student response at the large public university during a natural disaster. Literature on disaster preparedness and emergency communications on college campuses rarely considers the needs of the international student population. How can the campus better support international students during a large-scale emergency? A post-incident survey examines student perceptions of the event and the institutional response to the disaster.The final chapter considers issues raised by within these studies, limitations, and possibilities for future research. Because these chapters examine routines and processes initiated in part to comply with Federal immigration policy, using rapidly changing technologies that are also subject to constraint by governmental policies, the future offers ample opportunities for further exploration

Relation between Employee Learning, Emotional Intelligence, and Organizational Performance

Many managers of Puerto Rican corporations have not been able to assist employees in their recovery from the devastation left by Hurricane Maria. This lack of assistance has resulted in high employee attrition rates, low productivity, anxiety, isolation, anguish, despair, panic attacks, and depression. Scholarly literature lacks research on emotional intelligence and learning in corporate, postdisaster contexts; both capacities may mitigate employee stress due to the uncertainty inherent in postdisaster conditions and motivate employees to persevere in the face of adversity. The purpose of this quantitative study was to assess the relationship between employee learning, emotional intelligence, and organizational performance. The theoretical framework applied was human capital theory. The research questions focused on how employee learning and emotional intelligence are related to organizational performance. The sample was 90 full-time employees of multinational corporations in Puerto Rico. Data were collected through SurveyMonkey using the Workplace Learning Scale, the Trait Meta-Mood Scale, and the Organizational Performance Scale. Regression analysis was used to analyze the data, and both employee learning and emotional intelligence were found to have a statistically significant positive relationship with organizational performance (β = .563, p = .000; β = .348, p = .000). To more fully capture participants\u27 thoughts and feelings, a mixed methodology is recommended for future research. The results of this study could assist human resources managers in their selection of training that enables employees to gain the skills needed to support business continuity and personal welfare in postdisaster environments

Social Media Role in Relieving the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis

This research explores the possibilities and limitations associated with utilizing new media technologies in relieving humanitarian crises by focusing on the Rohingyan case. The main interest is to approach a conceptual communication framework based on the current Rohingya refugees’ perceptions about social media networks and mobile apps and the potential suggestions to optimize its usefulness in relieving their crisis. Addressing the obstructive challenges that interrupt the new media technologies functionality is another objective of the study. The mixed methodology interlaces the qualitative findings of the questionnaire with the qualitative outcomes of the semi-structured interviews to reach an inclusive investigation to the research questions. An examination to the significance of relationships between Rohingya demographic attributes and their preferences and perceptions toward social media platforms and mobile apps is substantial to explore the dominant factors that may influence the relationship between the Rohingya and different media platforms. Keywords: social media, mixed methods, Rohingya, humanitarian crises DOI: 10.7176/NMMC/87-04 Publication date: January 31st 202

Education, Covid-19 and care : social inequality and social relations of value in the South Africa and the United States

Abstract:Education has not been spared during the Covid-19 pandemic that has exposed deep inequalities across the world along lines of ‘race’, class, gender and geography, as well as the digital divide. However, many of the policy responses and solutions proffered to mitigate the crisis fail to address the generative structures that made public education institutions so vulnerable to shocks in the first place. Using the work of Nancy Fraser and Social Reproduction Theory (Bhattacharya, 2017), we argue that understanding the prevailing capitalist social institutional order, and the relations it generates between spheres of production and spheres of reproduction (including education), is fundamental to theories of change that not only respond to the Covid-19 moment justly, but also avoid reproducing and deepening the conditions that made Covid so cataclysmic to begin with. By analysing the conditions of public education across South Africa and the United States comparatively, a case is built for distinguishing between affirmative responses that leave inequitable structures intact and transformative responses that seek to address the root causes of injustice and violence amplified by the pandemic

Children and Disaster Education: An Analysis of Disaster Risk Reduction within the School Curricula of Oregon, Texas, and the Philippines

For the past few decades, there has been a significant increase in the intensity and frequency of disasters. This has created a growing interest in the issue of disaster risk reduction among the global population. Past research has shown that proper planning and the use of protective measures can reduce the effects of a disastrous event. Preparedness is not only the responsibility of a nation’s government or relief agencies, but also of every member of the community, including the vulnerable population of children. The United Nations has called for disaster risk reduction education to be implemented in schools around the world. Providing children with disaster education is the first step towards creating a culture of preparedness and fostering responsible citizens within the community. Through the examination of public school curricula in the Philippines, Oregon, and Texas, this research aims to explore the level of disaster risk reduction implementation and identify potential gaps. Results of this study show that disaster risk reduction education is present within the curriculum framework, but there are still many elements from the UNICEF/UNESCO best practices checklist that are not being fulfilled. Governments, education agencies, and teachers could use this research to determine how to fill these voids

The lived experience of counseling students in natural disaster

After natural disaster, survivors may experience moderate to severe signs and symptoms of emotional distress which may subside or worsen as time passes (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2022). Adults pursuing higher education when natural disaster strikes experience an additional array of unique issues which may exacerbate symptoms of emotional distress (Wilkinson et al.,2013). To create and improve curricular and co-curricular structures that meet the needs of their students, educators in many health and mental health disciplines can draw from a variety of quantitative and qualitative studies, particularly those focused on how their disciplines’ students navigate the experience of natural disaster while enrolled in a program of study (Henneman et al., 2020; Matthieu et al., 2007; Myhre et al., 2017; Szczygiel & Emery-Fertitta, 2021). However, there is little to no extant literature on counseling students’ experiences of surviving natural disaster while enrolled in graduate study. Using a qualitative, phenomenological approach this study sought to fill this identified gap in the literature to inform future inquiry and application. Six themes emerged from data analysis that described participants’ lived experience of natural disaster and perceptions of support offered by their program. The findings are discussed in the context of the research questions that framed the study. Implications for counseling and counselor education programs are presented along with limitations and recommendations for future research