مطالب

Background: Bangkok's urban landscape features approximately 6,000 high-rise towers housing millions of residents in what was historically considered a seismically stable region. However, the March 28, 2025 magnitude-7.7 Myanmar earthquake triggered widespread psychological distress among Bangkok's vertical communities despite causing minimal structural damage. While existing disaster psychology research demonstrates that individual appraisal processes and coping resources influence distress outcomes, high-density vertical urban environments remain largely unexplored in disaster literature, particularly within Asian megacities where socioeconomic inequities may compound vulnerabilities. Aims: This study aimed to quantify earthquake-related emotional distress changes, evaluate the effectiveness of different coping strategies, examine socioeconomic and disability-related moderators, and test Transactional Model of Stress and Coping pathways among Bangkok's high-rise population. Methods: A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted two weeks post-earthquake using multistage stratified probability sampling. From 120 randomly selected buildings across Bangkok's districts, 5,200 households received survey invitations, yielding 2,104 completed responses (40.5% response rate). Participants were adults residing at least six months in buildings exceeding eight floors. Validated Thai-adapted instruments included the Kessler-6 for psychological distress, Insomnia Severity Index, and custom scales measuring emergency preparedness, social support-seeking, and self-care behaviors. Statistical analyses employed paired t-tests, ANOVA, MANOVA, and bootstrap mediation procedures with effect size reporting. Results: Clinically significant insomnia prevalence increased from 27.4% to 61.8% post-earthquake. Emergency preparedness behaviors were associated with lower anxiety levels, while social support-seeking correlated with reduced insomnia severity. Significant disparities emerged across housing tenure, income levels, and disability status, with renters demonstrating lower preparedness rates than homeowners (54.6% versus 71.9%). Mediation analyses revealed that preparedness and support-seeking behaviors collectively explained 37.7% of the association between perceived seismic threat and psychological distress outcomes. Conclusion: Perceived earthquake threat, rather than actual structural damage, emerged as the primary driver of psychological distress in Bangkok's high-rise communities. While emergency preparedness and social support provided substantial protective effects against anxiety and insomnia, these resources were inequitably distributed across socioeconomic groups. These findings highlight the critical need for inclusive disaster preparedness policies that address structural barriers affecting vulnerable populations in rapidly urbanizing megacities facing emerging seismic risks.

Introduction: Academic performance, as one of the most important criteria for evaluating students' ability to complete their studies, can grow under the influence of social skills, social acceptance, and respect for moral privacy. With the understanding of this importance, the present study was conducted with the aim of the relationship between social skills and social acceptance with academic performance, considering the mediating role of ethical privacy. Material and Methods: The research method was descriptive-correlation study. The statistical population consisted of 645 middle school students of Babol province, using Cochran's formula, 347 of them were selected by one-stage cluster random sampling method. Four standard questionnaires of social skills, social acceptance, respect for moral privacy, and academic performance were used for gathering data. The face and content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts and through factor analysis. The reliability of the instrument was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Data analysis was done using Pearson's correlation coefficient and path analysis in SPSS and Lisrel statistical software. Results: The results showed that the relationship between social skills and social acceptance with students' academic performance was positive and significant, and the mediating role of ethical privacy in the relationship between social skills and social acceptance with students' academic performance is positive and significant. Conclusion: Based on the results; in order to increase academic performance, it is possible to increase the social skills and ability of social acceptance of students in the context of respecting moral privacy.

INTRODUCTION: Since systemic limitations such as managerial weaknesses, lack of specialized skills, flawed policymaking, and inefficient structures have created serious challenges in the persuasion process. This study aims to design a strategic model for audience persuasion by the national media during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. METHODS: This research uses the grounded theory approach as a qualitative method. Data were collected through open-ended interviews and purposeful sampling of 20 experts and specialists related to the subject. The final model includes 264 codes, 85 concepts, and 78 categories. Data collection and analysis continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. FINDINGS: According to the findings, factors such as flawed policymaking, ineffective interaction between the media and other sectors, lack of efficient managerial structures, and unhealthy competition were among the key barriers to audience persuasion during the COVID-19 pandemic. The final strategic model identifies capacities and suggests solutions to improve the audience persuasion process. CONCLUSION: The results showed that fundamental reforms in structures, strengthening persuasive expertise, clarifying policies, improving interactions, and increasing public trust are necessary for the national media to play a more effective role in future crises. Therefore, paying attention to the values ​​of the audience and utilizing cultural capacities can turn the national media into a powerful tool for crisis management.

Pragmatic competence, a fundamental component of language ability, involves understanding a speaker’s intended meaning through various communicative functions. Among these functions, speech acts such as refusals and complaints play a crucial role in everyday interactions, allowing interlocutors to convey information and perform social actions. This study examines the production of refusal and complaint speech acts by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, addressing a gap in previous research that has often overlooked the potential influence of learners’ language proficiency, social status, gender, and mother tongue. Through purposive sampling, 120 participants were selected to respond to 10 role-play scenarios designed to elicit refusals and complaints. The data were analyzed qualitatively to identify patterns in speech act production. The findings reveal that most participants favored indirect strategies when expressing refusals and complaints. Moreover, the study found no significant effects of language proficiency, sociocultural background, mother tongue, or gender on how EFL learners produce these speech acts. These results contribute to a better understanding of pragmatic competence in EFL contexts and suggest that these sociolinguistic factors may have less impact on refusal and complaint strategies than previously assumed.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between parental overcontrol and adolescent social withdrawal, with fear of negative and positive evaluation as potential mediating variables. Methods: The research employed a descriptive correlational design and included a sample of 551 Nigerian adolescents selected based on the Morgan and Krejcie table. Data were collected using standardized self-report instruments: the Psychological Control Scale–Youth Self-Report (PCS-YSR) for parental overcontrol, the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNE), the Fear of Positive Evaluation Scale (FPES), and the Withdrawn/Depressed subscale of the Youth Self-Report (YSR). Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated using SPSS-27, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was conducted via AMOS-21 to examine direct and indirect pathways among the variables. Findings: Pearson correlation analysis showed that parental overcontrol was significantly associated with fear of negative evaluation (r = .51, p < .001), fear of positive evaluation (r = .47, p < .001), and social withdrawal (r = .42, p < .001). SEM results confirmed that the structural model had good fit indices (χ² = 146.23, df = 84, χ²/df = 1.74, CFI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.041). Parental overcontrol had significant direct effects on fear of negative evaluation (β = .51, p < .001), fear of positive evaluation (β = .48, p < .001), and social withdrawal (β = .27, p < .001). Both fears significantly predicted social withdrawal (FNE: β = .45, p < .001; FPE: β = .38, p < .001). Indirect effects of parental overcontrol on social withdrawal via FNE (B = 0.19, p < .001) and FPE (B = 0.14, p < .001) were also significant. Conclusion: These findings highlight that fear of evaluation—both negative and positive—serves as a psychological mechanism linking parental overcontrol to social withdrawal in adolescents, emphasizing the importance of addressing cognitive-affective vulnerabilities in preventive and therapeutic interventions.