Coping with a community stressor: a proposed hazardous waste disposal facility
This study examined a number of factors believed to influence community involvement. Residents of a rural community near Phoenix, Arizona, where a hazardous waste facility had been proposed to built, were interviewed at home in August 1982. Most residents were chosen at random (n = 70) while a smaller number (n = 29) were selected because of known involvement in activities regarding the hazardous waste facility. Residents who perceived the facility as a threat to their health, safety, and general well-being employed a number of coping strategies. Strategies to change or alter the source of stress, problem-focused coping, were associated with greater community involvement. Strategies to regulate one's emotional response to stress, emotion-focused coping, were associated with less community involvement. Increased self-efficacy and sense of community led to increased community involvement. Both measures indirectly influenced community involvement through different modes of coping. Self-efficacy was negatively related to emotion-focused coping while sense of community was positively related to problem-focused coping. Increased demoralization was associated with decreased self-efficacy, increased emotion-focused coping, and decreased community involvement. The results suggest that the psychologically most fragile residents are underrepresented in community activities, and that the use of high levels of emotion-focused coping may have been maladaptive.
- OSTI ID:
- 6136772
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
PSYCHOLOGY
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
WASTE DISPOSAL
BEHAVIOR
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
MAN
WASTE PROCESSING PLANTS
WASTE STORAGE
ANIMALS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
MAMMALS
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
PRIMATES
STORAGE
VERTEBRATES
WASTE MANAGEMENT
420900* - Engineering- Waste Processing Plants & Equipment- (-1989)
560400 - Other Environmental Pollutant Effects