Although faced with historical and ongoing hardships, many indigenous communities in Southeast Asia have managed to survive and thrive. The identification of factors that assist these communities in coping with the challenges experienced would help enhance their overall psychological well-being and resilience. The current review outlines types of protective factors for the indigenous communities in Southeast Asia focusing on the cultural, family and community elements linked to their psychological well-being. Four themes of protective factors were identified strong connection to the land and the environment, embracing cultural norms and traditions, passing down and keeping indigenous knowledge across generations, and emphasis on community and social cohesion. Findings suggest that the value of interconnectedness serves as an overarching theme that forms the worldview of the indigenous communities in Southeast Asia. Interconnectedness was important to the indigenous peoples as they considered themselves to be extensions of their family, community, ancestors, future descendants, the land and to all living things and creations that reside on their lands. Future intervention attempts to promote resilience among these communities should take these factors into account, and pay closer attention to community-level factors that seem to have a profound impact on the indigenous construction of resilience.
A critical part of the national economy is small and medium enterprises (SMEs). SME owners are vital contributors to the overall economy. Due to their limited capital and assets, they are more vulnerable. In comparison to their contribution, the value of assessing SME owner's depression, anxiety, and mental stress has been very minimal during the COVID-19 outbreak. Firms were forced to close due to lockdown, and they faced substantial business losses. Thus, this study aims to investigate SME owners' psychological distress due to business losses during this pandemic. The study used psychological parameters: Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) to examine SME owners' psychological distress. A total number of 217 owners were surveyed through a judgmental sampling technique using a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed employing partial least square-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings showed that DASS-21 parameters and fear of business loss affected psychological distress. Besides, fear of business loss increases psychological distress, whereas government support lessens the distress. Theoretically, this study extended the scope of DASS-21 scale and contributed to the literature of psychology. In terms of policy implications, this study provides useful information for government, policymakers, and SME owners about the effects mentioned above.
Empowerment is a higher order multilevel framework that is used to understand and evaluate individuals, groups, organizations, and communities as they engage in the practice and execution of the participatory process. The intrapersonal component of psychological empowerment has been examined through sociopolitical control and occupies two dimensions: leadership competence and policy control. Though the Sociopolitical Control Scale for Youth (SPCS-Y) has been examined using a 17-item scale, Christens, Krauss, and Zeldin (2016) recently assessed the factorial validity of an abbreviated SPCS-Y among a sample of Malaysian adolescents. Yet, there is a need to further examine this abbreviated SPCS-Y among a sample of U.S adolescents. This study tested the factor structure of the abbreviated SPCS-Y among a sample of urban youth of color (N = 383). Using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) we examined the relationship leadership competence and policy control had with conceptually related variables. Analyses supported the bidimensional factor structure and the factorial validity of the abbreviated SPCS-Y. MANOVA results also indicate that participants with both higher leadership competence and policy control also had higher composite scores among conceptually related variables.
Extreme workloads and strict work schedules make an individual cut their time and energy from their family domain, which may create a conflict, and this situation is called Work-Family Conflict (W-FC). Besides this, Work Family Balance (WFB) and Job Satisfaction (JS) issues are significant for academics because they have to play two roles (Job and Family) at the same time. This paper's fundamental objective was to investigate the indirect effect (mediation) of WFB through both forms of W-FC and JS. Following the convenience sampling technique, 250 married academicians from different private universities were considered for the sample size. Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to complete the data analyses. The outcomes of this study showed that out of the two forms, only W to F has significant adverse effects on JS. Also, it was found that to some extent, WFB showed a partial mediating effect only between W to FC and JS, whereas there was no mediating effect through F to WC and JS. These findings will help both academicians and higher authorities of private universities in Bangladesh. The higher authorities and decision-makers of the private universities in Bangladesh can identify the sources of W-FCs and take the necessary steps to mitigate the level of W-FCs.
This study explores the mechanism for timely and equitable distribution of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination among the various communities in Pakistan. It examines the factors that support and/or impede peoples' access and response towards COVID-19 vaccination in Pakistan. The study uses a literature synthesis approach to examine and analyze the situation of the COVID-19 vaccination in Pakistan. The research results show "hesitancy" and "inequality" as two fundamental challenges that hinder the successful delivery of COVID-19 vaccination in Pakistan. People are reluctant to use vaccines due to conspiracy theories and religious beliefs. However, inequality, especially unequal accessibility to all social groups appears to be a more significant barrier to getting a vaccine. We argue that there is a need to mobilize community influence, social media, and mass media campaigns for public education on vaccination programs along with the engagement of religious leaders to endorse the vaccination for the masses. The area of this study is underdeveloped; thereby, future studies are recommended to investigate the possible way for equitable distribution of vaccines in multiple regions.
The early 2020 witnessed Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic followed by a nationwide lockdown in the whole history for the first time. The entire world had to go for nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of such contagious and deadly disease. In short, the coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent lockdown had created a storm in the world giving rise to change in public with respect to parameters like trust in the government institutions, civic engagement, and so on. In this raising dilemma, multiple countries have acknowledged the significance of trusting institutions, especially during lockdown. It is also widely accepted that lives of individuals had been undergoing change ever since the spread of COVID-19. Likewise, public's trust in the institutions is directly related to the civic engagement. Civic engagement is commonly understood as a phenomenon that develops a difference in an individual's civic life by combining values, skills, motivation, as well as knowledge. Different forms of civic engagement include national service, volunteering, societal services, and so forth. The main focus of this article is to examine the influence of COVID-19 outbreak on general attitude of the citizens of Malaysia and India, their trust on the governing institutions, and the civic engagement. In other words, this study tries to assess the impact of the pandemic on variables such as attitude toward the lockdown, trust in institutions, and civic engagement. For this, the study adopted cross-sectional community questionnaire survey in two countries-Malaysia and India. The respondents selected for the study was 1437. The respondent's demographics, attitude toward lockdown, trust in institutions, and civic engagement during the lockdown were collected by means of convenience sampling technique. Later the collected data were measured in terms of descriptive statistics and regression analysis. Findings of the study stated that public's trust in the institution can be increased by enhancing the civic activities and implementing policies that govern and build the society.
State borders are the areas that are vulnerable to the degradation of national identity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes and the behavior of language use among the multi-ethnic Indonesian of predominantly Dayak, Malay, and Chinese who resided on the Indonesia-Malaysia border. The present research applied a qualitative ethnographic approach to document and to describe how a group of multi-ethnic communities participated in building their awareness, attitudes and practices of language as a national identity. The data were taken from 20 informants. They were teachers, students, local people, entrepreneurs, and state civil apparatus. The research found out that the ethnic groups on the border were highly aware of using Indonesian language as evidenced through a form of community involvement, volunteerism and social attitudes in civilizing Indonesian as the dominant language at the border. Their awareness was shown through their involvement, volunteerism, and social attitudes in developing Indonesian language as the dominant language in the border. It is argued that the involvement of all ethnic groups on the border affects positively on strengthening their attitudes and awareness in using Indonesian language.