Psychological Risk Assessment of Residents in Flood/Landslide-Prone Areas in the Province of Bukidnon

Abstract

Natural disasters like floods and landslides are potential threats to both the physical and emotional well-being of individuals. The psychological effect could influence the way people look at themselves and adapt to any untoward incidence in the future. The study aimed to assess the residents' psychological state in terms of depression, anxiety, and stress in the aftermath of a disaster. Also, it assessed the adaptive capacity of affected populations to disaster; and recommended a program for disaster mitigation on psychological resilience at the barangay level. Questionnaires were used to gather data on disaster risk reduction elements, which determined the hazard, exposure, and vulnerability of the populations. With these variables, the risk and the adaptive capacity were computed. The adopted 42-item DASS questionnaire of Lovibond and Lovibond (1995) measures the three subscales of psychological health conditions which are depression, anxiety, and stress. Results showed that most of the respondents are on the normal scale in the three subscales. Of the three negative emotional states, the anxiety scale was consistently higher than depression and stress scales among respondents of the five barangays. The risk assessment of the five barangays showed that among the barangays, Barangay Batangan had the highest hazard and exposure. However, vulnerability was low in this barangay due to the high readiness factor, thus resulting in a higher adaptive capacity compared to the other four barangays.