Abstract

FAVERO, Eveline  and  SARRIERA, Jorge Castellá. Impacts of drought on the psychological well-being of family farmers in southern Brazil. Temas psicol. [online]. 2014, vol.22, n.4, pp. 809-822. ISSN 1413-389X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.9788/TP2014.4-11.

The study aimed to analyze the degree of association between different levels of impact of drought and perception of psychological well-being in family farmers in Southern Brazil. Participated in the study 198 farmers (104 men and 88 women), aged 18-77 years (M = 44.38, SD = 10.04). As instruments we used the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and an ad hoc scale with eight items, dealing with the impact of drought on the following aspects: Financial/indebtedness, psychological, leisure, clothing, sleep, study, family relationships, and routine. The hypothesis was that, as the impact of the disaster on family increases, the negative perception of psychological well-being also increases. ANOVA analysis demonstrated that there is a significant effect of drought on the well-being and the linear trend also was significant confirming the research hypothesis. However, the difference between means of low and high impact group demonstrated that the disaster needs cause a high impact to have significant influence on the well-being. Regression analysis revealed that the impact of the drought on clothing and income are the variables that most contribute to a negative perception of well-being. Results indicated that it is not the disaster itself, but the resources that the farmers have to face it that will determine the severity of its impacts and influence of drought on psychological well-being.

Keywords : Psychological well-being; drought; family farmers.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )