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Sugiura M, Ishibashi R, Abe T, Nouchi R, Honda A, Sato S, Muramoto T, Imamura F. Self-help and mutual assistance in the aftermath of a tsunami: How individual factors contribute to resolving difficulties. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0258325. [PMID: 34618878 PMCID: PMC8496872 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2020] [Accepted: 09/24/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Self-aid and mutual assistance among victims are critical for resolving difficulties in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, but individual facilitative factors for such resolution processes are poorly understood. To identify such individual factors in the background (i.e., disaster damage and demographic) and personality domains considering different types of difficulty and resolution, we analyzed survey data collected in the 3-year aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. We first identified major types of difficulty using a cluster analysis of 18 difficulty domains and then explored individual factors that facilitated six types of resolution (self-help, request for help, help from family, help from an acquaintance, help through cooperation, and public assistance) of these difficulty types. We identified general life difficulties and medico-psychological difficulties as two broad types of difficulty; disaster damage contributed to both types, while some personality factors (e.g., neuroticism) exacerbated the latter. Disaster damage hampered self-resolution and forced a reliance on resolution through cooperation or public assistance. On the other hand, some demographic factors, such as being young and living in a three-generation household, facilitated resolution thorough the family. Several personality factors facilitated different types of resolution, primarily of general life difficulties; the problem-solving factor facilitated self-resolution, altruism, or stubbornness resolutions through requests, leadership resolution through acquaintance, and emotion-regulation resolution through public assistance. Our findings are the first to demonstrate the involvement of different individual, particularly personality, factors in survival in the complex social dynamics of this disaster stage. They may contribute to disaster risk mitigation, allowing sophisticated risk evaluation and community resilience building.
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Affiliation(s)
- Motoaki Sugiura
- International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
- Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
- Smart-Aging Research Center, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
- * E-mail:
| | - Ryo Ishibashi
- Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
- Smart-Aging Research Center, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
| | - Tsuneyuki Abe
- Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
| | - Rui Nouchi
- Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
- Smart-Aging Research Center, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
| | - Akio Honda
- Faculty of Informatics, Shizuoka Institute of Science and Technology, Fukuroi, Japan
| | - Shosuke Sato
- International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
| | - Toshiaki Muramoto
- International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
| | - Fumihiko Imamura
- International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
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