Spinning in circles?: A systematic review on the role of theory in social vulnerability, resilience and adaptation research

An increasing number of publications focus on social vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation (SVRA) towards natural hazards and climate change. Despite this proliferation of research, a systematic understanding of how these studies are theoretically grounded is lacking. Here, we systematically reviewed 4432 articles that address SVRA in various disciplinary fields (e.g. psychology, sociology, geography, mathematics) for various hazards, including floods, droughts, landslides, storm surges, wildfires, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcano eruptions. We focus on the extent to which these studies explicate the frameworks, theoretical constructs or theories they rely on. Surprisingly, we found that about 90% of the reviewed studies do not explicitly refer to a theoretical un-derpinning. Overall, theories focusing on individuals' SVRA were more frequently used than those focusing on systems, society, groups, and networks. Moreover, the uptake of theories varied according to the hazard investigated and field of knowledge, being more frequent in wildfire and flood studies and articles published in social science journals. Based on our analysis, we propose a reflexive handling of theories to foster more transparent, comparable, and robust empirical research on SVRA

Penn Dinsel Obsesyonlar Envanteri’nin Türkçe Formunun Psikometrik Özelliklerinin Değerlendirilmesi

Objective: The Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity (PIOS) was developed by Abramowitz and his colleagues (2002) to evaluate the severity of scrupulosity symptoms as a dimension of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The aim of the present study was to adapt the PIOS into the Turkish and evaluate its psychometric properties in a university student sample. Method: The sample of the present study was composed of 444 undergraduate university students whose age ranged between 18-25 years old. All participants were asked to complete a battery of self-report measures including the PIOS, Beck Depression inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Clark-Beck Obsessive Compulsive Inventory and Penn State Worry Inventory. Following a period of approximately 4 weeks a sub sample of the participants were asked to complete the questionnaires for the second time. Results: Consistent with the findings of the original study (Abromowitz et al., 2002), explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the two-dimensional structure of the Turkish version of the PIOS. However, distribution of the items on the two factors showed some cultural differences that might be specific to our culture. The results revealed acceptable test-retest and internal consistency coefficients, and also good construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity information for the Turkish version of the PIOS, which can be utilized in the Turkish culture in order to evaluate individual differences in terms of scrupulosity symptoms. Conclusion: The results of the present study indicated a good reliability and validity information for the Turkish version of the PIOS, supporting the cross-cultural nature of the scale.WoSScopu

Post-traumatic stress, growth, and depreciation during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from Turkey

Background: A worldwide health threat, the COVID-19 pandemic, has highlighted the need to focus on its mental health impact. However, literature on mental health effects including post-traumatic consequences of the pandemic is scarce. Objective: The current study examined post-traumatic stress (PTS), growth (PTG), and depreciation (PTD) during the pandemic, and explored factors associated with these mental health outcomes in an adult community sample from Turkey. Method: A total of 685 participants responded to an online survey that gathered data on sociodemographic characteristics, financial loss during the pandemic, time spent at home and frequency of social media use, perception of COVID-related risks, stress, and event-related rumination. Data analysis included correlation and regression analyses. Results: Results showed that PTS, PTG, and PTD were positively correlated with each other. Younger age and being single were associated with higher PTS and PTD, and lower education levels predicted all three outcomes. Experiencing financial loss during the pandemic, more frequent social media use to follow COVID-related news and posts, and longer time spent at home during the pandemic were associated with higher PTS. Anticipating financial risks during the pandemic were associated with all outcomes while anticipating health-related risks due to COVID-19 and perceived stress levels predicted PTS and PTD but not PTG. Both intrusive and deliberate rumination were associated with higher levels of PTS and PTD, and PTG was predicted solely by deliberate rumination. Moreover, provisional PTSD was indicated in 47.9% of the participants. Membership to the provisional PTSD group was predicted by age, level of education, time spent on social media, anticipating COVID‐19–related health risks, perceived stress, and event-related rumination. Conclusions: The current study provides empirical evidence for the short-term post-traumatic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and related factors, which can help to guide mental health services during the pandemic

Spinning in circles? A systematic review on the role of theory in social vulnerability, resilience and adaptation research

An increasing number of publications focus on social vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation (SVRA) towards natural hazards and climate change. Despite this proliferation of research, a systematic understanding of how these studies are theoretically grounded is lacking. Here, we systematically reviewed 4432 articles that address SVRA in various disciplinary fields (e.g. psychology, sociology, geography, mathematics) for various hazards, including floods, droughts, landslides, storm surges, wildfires, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcano eruptions. We focus on the extent to which these studies explicate the frameworks, theoretical constructs or theories they rely on. Surprisingly, we found that about 90% of the reviewed studies do not explicitly refer to a theoretical underpinning. Overall, theories focusing on individuals’ SVRA were more frequently used than those focusing on systems, society, groups, and networks. Moreover, the uptake of theories varied according to the hazard investigated and field of knowledge, being more frequent in wildfire and flood studies and articles published in social science journals. Based on our analysis, we propose a reflexive handling of theories to foster more transparent, comparable, and robust empirical research on SVRA