INFLUENCING FACTORS ON MENTAL HEALTH OF RESIDENTS IN NATURE RESERVES

Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 1351-1356

DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.195 1351

I

NFLUENCING

F

ACTORS ON

M

ENTAL

H

EALTH OF

R

ESIDENTS IN

N

ATURE

R

ESERVES

Zeyu Xu

_{, Huabin Lin}

_{, Shijun Chen}

_*

Abstract

In addition to landscape and ecology protection, nature reserve has a certain impact on the work and life of local residents, and possible their mental health. This paper aims to identify the factors influencing the mental health of residents in nature reserves. First, the mental health of residents in a nature reserve and its influencing factors were analysed descriptively through a questionnaire survey, using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). Then, seven indices, e.g. family status, life pressure and social support, were selected to establish a multi-ordered Logit regression model. The results show that gender, age, occupation and family income are closely related to the mental health of residents in the nature reserve; the years of education, family economic situation, physical health, life pressure and social support have a significant impact on the mental health of the local residents. The research results provide an important guide for improving the mental health of residents in nature reserves.

Key words: Nature Reserve, Residents, Mental Health, Influencing Factors.

Received: 11-03-19 | Accepted: 18-09-19

INTRODUCTION

Regions listed as nature reserves in the

country often have better ecological

environment or special protection objects，

and they are often in remote and poor areas (Volokitina, 2017). After being listed as a nature reserve, the regional environment has been effectively protected, but the local economic development model is restricted (Huang, Fu, Wang et al., 2019). The local people, as stakeholders, have been bound in terms of their employment and life progress. This causes certain contradictions between national policies and personal development (Lyver & Tylianakis, 2017), which is likely to have a certain impact on the mental health of the local people over time. Mental health is an important theme of modern

1_{Shanghai Normal University of Business, Shanghai 200234,}

China. 2_{Lvzetonglan Environmental Technology Co., Ltd,}

Shanghai 200240, China. 3_{Institute of New Rural}

Development, Tongji University, Shanghai 200241, China. E-Mail: [email protected]

human health. Especially with the current economic system reform deepening and social competition increasing, mental health problems have been gradually valued (Uprety, Asselin, Bergeron et al., 2012). If the place of residence is classified as a nature reserve, the contradiction between the government's natural protection policy and the local people's longing for economic development may lead to a variety of psychological stress factors and further affect the mental health of the local people (Chekroud, oho, & Krystal, 2017).

Among the existing research, there are many studies on the mental health of residents in rural areas and mountainous areas (Bommarito & Hughes, 2019), but few researches on the mental health problems of local people in nature reserves.

Whereas, the relationship between the

establishment of nature reserves and local economic development has been mainly studied deeply (Nunn, 2017). Based on this, it’s believed that although the establishment of nature reserves limit the development of local industry, it has promoted the development of tourism, and from the perspective

YICHUAN ZHANG,HAORAN JIA,KE MA,DA MAO,LIFANG QIAO 1352

of ecological economy, the ecological benefits obtained by nature reserves are higher than the pure economic benefits (Currin, Hayslip, & Temple, 2011). Also, local residents can enjoy a long-term good living environment (Vo, Forder, Tavener et al., 2015), and employment from tourism is promoted (Byles et al., 2014), which positively affects their mental health. However, those who have a high yearning for economic development (Garbern, Ebbeling, & Bartels, 2016), prefer to enjoy modern life, and maintain their original life and do not want their own lives interfered by the tourism industry will be resistant to this (Nukui, Midorikawa, Murakami et al., 2018). Therefore, this paper attempts to study the mental health status and influencing factors of the local people in nature reserves using the questionnaires and Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). It’s expected to provide reference for promoting the mental health and the healthy life of the local people in nature reserves.

Table 1.

K10 scale content

Problem description

Are you often tired for no reason? Are you often nervous?

Are you often nervous but not calm? Do you often feel helpless?

Do you often feel that your rest is not good and you are very upset

Do you often feel restless? Are you often depressed?

Do you often feel that everything is very difficult? Do you often feel that nothing can arouse your interest? Do you often feel that there is no value?

Option setting

Answer score setting:

(1) All the time (5 points); (2) Most of the time (4 points); (3) Sometimes (3 points); (4) Occasionally (2 points); (5) Almost no (1 point).

Total score analysis:

(1) 10-15 points: Good mental health; (2) 16-21 points: Mental health status; (3) 22-29 points: Poor mental health;

(4) 30-50 points: Mental health is particularly poor.

MENTAL HEALTH OF LOCAL PEOPLE

Research methods

In this paper, a questionnaire survey and a K10 scale were conducted on the local people of a nature reserve. A total of 600 questionnaires were issued, and 565 copies were recovered, of which 530 were valid, with the effective rate of 93.8%. The questionnaire covered the sociodemographic characteristics (gender, age, etc.), family status,

perceived health status, stress, and government support of local people. The K10 (Loo, Dimaggio, Gershon et al., 2016) is a short self-rating scale that can identify the influencing factors of threatening the psychological status of a particular population, which has been widely used for the study on the mental health evaluation of domestic group in recent years. Table 1 lists the specific content of the K10 scale.

Mental health status of local people

Through survey on the local people in this nature reserve, the measurement results of K10 scale showed that their mental health status maintained at a good level as a whole. Figure 1 shows the distribution of the K10 scale scores.

Figure 1.

Distribution of K10 scores of

indigenous residents

It can be seen from Figure 1 that 78.3% and 11.7%% of the local people surveyed had better and good mental health status, and only 2.83% of the respondents had poor mental health, indicating that the local people in this nature reserve generally have a sound mental health status.

ANALYSIS FOR THE INFLUENCING FACTORS OF

LOCAL PEOPLE’S MENTAL HEALTH

The influence of gender on the mental health of local people

Of the 530 valid questionnaires collected, 382 respondents were males and 148 respondents were females. According to the statistical data of the K10 scale and the survey questionnaire, this study calculated the proportions of males and females in each score range, as shown in Figure 2.

INFLUENCING FACTORS ON MENTAL HEALTH OF RESIDENTS IN NATURE RESERVES 1353

Figure 2.

Distribution of gender in mental

health status

Figure 2 shows that among the respondents in good mental health status, males accounted for the vast majority, while among the respondents in poor mental health status, females made up a higher proportion than males. The reasons are mainly because males tend to have stronger psychological endurance, and can expect the advantages of their residence being listed as nature reserve; females have more delicate emotions and more focused on the present so that they cannot understand well bout the advantages of nature reserves.

The influence of age on the mental health of local people

Age reflects the individual's experience. The older the age, the deeper the understanding of things. This study analyses the respondents' K10 scale scores in terms of the age of the respondents, and then concludes the relationship between age and mental health by eliminating the exceptional cases (such as diseases, major setbacks, etc.), as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Distribution of age on mental

health

Figure 3 shows that the influence of age on the mental health of the local people was inverted U-shaped in the line graph. Young people aged 18-20 were not very aware of the concept of nature reserve, and most people in this age group was still at school, so the natural reserve policy had little influence on them; most of the respondents in the 21-50 age group were office workers or working in the farm, and they were under great living pressure at the stage of sandwich generation, but the policy of nature reserve has limited local employment opportunities, so they are in the general mental health status; for respondents over 50 years old, they generally had a stable job or in retirement, the policy of nature reserve has little impact on their life, so their mental health is usually at a good level.

The influence of occupation on the mental health of local people

The policy of nature reserve will affect local agricultural and industrial development, and thus the implementation of employment policy. Based on this, the two score ranges of 10-15 points and 22-30 points in the K10 scale were used to analyse the occupation of each respondent and the related proportions, as shown in Figure 4 and 5.

Figure 4.

The proportion of each occupation

in the 10-15 score

Figure 5.

The proportion of each occupation

in the 22-30 score

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Gender

Male Female

10-15 16-21 22-29 30-50 %

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 0

5 10 15 20

Fr

ac

tion

Age

20.35% 4.74% 12.13%

47.51%

15.27% Student

Farmer Retiree Unemployed Other

2.04% 25.04% 5.64%

65.11%

2.17% Studnt

Farmer Retiree Unemployed Other

YICHUAN ZHANG,HAORAN JIA,KE MA,DA MAO,LIFANG QIAO 1354

It can be seen from Figures 4 and 5, in the score range of 10-15 points, farmers, students, retirees and others (including government agencies, corporate personnel, etc.) accounted for a relatively high proportion, while in the 22-30 points, farmers and unemployed occupied the highest proportion. For the farmers themselves, they accounted for the highest proportion of respondents in this survey, and under the influence of the nature reserve policy, some farmers benefited from such policies, while some others had a reduction in the revenue of agricultural production when affected by the policy; for unemployed people, the policy of nature reserve had a greater impact on their employment, so their level of mental health is low; for students and retirees, the policy has less impact on their daily lives.

The influence of family income on the mental health of local people

In general, natural reserve policies affect the income level of local people, e.g., the income of local people who are engaged in tourism will increase, while those engaged in industries such as industrial production will be faced with the reduced income due to policy restrictions. Based on the income level in the questionnaire and the scores in the K10 scale, this study analyses the impact of family income on the mental health of local people after eliminating the exceptional cases (Figure 6).

Figure 6.

Relationship between family

income and mental health

Figure 6 shows that the more the annual income of the family, the higher the mental health level of the local people in the nature reserve. Under the influence of the nature reserve policy, some local residents' income was significantly improved or

maintained the same. Studies have shown that income can improve people's happiness. Therefore, the higher family income indicates a better mental health level of local people.

ANALYSIS OF INFLUENCING FACTORS

Multi-ordered Logit model

Using the survey data, this paper establishes a multi-ordered Logit model based on the data quantification, and analyses the influence direction and degree of each influencing factor on the mental health of the local people in the nature reserve. The multi-ordered Logit model is expressed as:

k

m m 1

p(y

n)

ln

x

1 p(y

n)











₌

₊



₋

_









where, n is the behaviour choice of the local people

in the nature reserve, y is the mental health level, and xm is the m-th variable affecting the mental health of the local people.

Variable selection

According to the actual situation of the survey, psychology, management experts, and government officials and managers of the nature reserve were consulted in the research process, and seven indicators were selected as key influencing factors. Then, the multi-ordered Logit model was used to explore the influence direction and degree of these seven influencing factors on the mental health status of the local people in the nature reserve. The variables were selected as shown in Table 2.

Table 2.

Model variable selection

Variable name Variable meaning

Years of schooling Continuous variable

family situation

Harmony=1; General=2; Disharmony=3

Family economic level

High=1; Medium=2;

Low=3 Whether it is a poor household

or a low-income household

Yes=1; No=0

Resident health

Good=1; General=2; No-good=3

Resident pressure situation

High=1; General=2;

Low=3

Social support

High=1; General=2;

Low=3

0 10 20 30 40 50

10 15 20 25 30 35

K10

INFLUENCING FACTORS ON MENTAL HEALTH OF RESIDENTS IN NATURE RESERVES 1355

Table3.

Model regression results

Variable name Regression coefficients Z statistic Probability value

Years of schooling 0.0423*** 4.69 0.000

family situation 0.0495 3.58 0.872

Family economic level 0.4001*** 2.99 0.000

Whether it is a poor household or a low-income household -0.2608** -2.97 0.015

Resident health 0.0125*** 2.80 0.000

Resident pressure situation -0.3214** -2.64 0.023

Social support 0.6433*** 5.15 0.000

Table 2 lists the seven selected indicator variables such as the years of education, family status, family economic situation, whether it is poor households and low-income households, the health of local people, the life pressure of local people, and social support as indicators, as well as the variable interpretation.

Discussion of results

In this study, multiple regressions were performed on 530 sample data using the Stata14.0 software and multi-ordered Logit model. The regression results are shown in Table 3. Table 3 indicates that except for the factor of family economic situation, the other six factors have a significant impact on the mental health of local people.

The years of education had a significant impact on the mental health level of the local people, indicating that with a higher education degree, the local people shall be subjected to more advanced ideas, the wider horizons, and the more acceptable to the advantages and disadvantages of natural reserves. The family economic situation has a significant impact on the mental health, perhaps because the family economic situation is closely related to the local economic level; the better the family economic situation, the more the local policy dividend, so that they have a good mental health level. Whether it is poor households and low-income households has a significantly negative impact on the mental health of the local people, because poor households and low-income households are largely related to their physical condition and have long been prone to mental health problems. The health status of local people has a significant impact on their mental health; when the individual maintains a good physical condition, it is beneficial for improving their mental health level. The life pressure of local people has a significantly negative impact on their mental health. The policy of nature reserve may lead to a great pressure on their lives. Under high pressure for a long time, their mental health will decline; social support has a significant impact on

their mental health, indicating that the continuous improvement of social support can effectively reduce the life pressure of the local people and promote their mental health.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the survey data of the questionnaires and K10 scale, this paper descriptively analyses the mental health status and influencing factors of the local people in the nature reserve, and uses the multi-ordered Logit model to carry out regression analysis on the selected influencing factors. The following conclusions have been drawn:

(1) The mental health status of the local people in the surveyed nature reserve was generally good, which may be related to the development of local tourism and relatively good economic level. The local government should explore existing resources, further develop the economy, promote employment, and improve the income level of the local people, and guarantee their mental health;

(2) Gender, age, occupation, and family income were closely related to the mental health status of local peoples in nature reserve from the perspective of descriptive statistical analysis. For this, it’s important to focus on the mental health status of the local people of specific gender, key age groups, key occupations, etc. for making timely intervention if serious problems occur;

(3) Therefore, emphasis should also be put on the group of local people with short years of education, poor family economics, poor households, low-income households, low-level health status, and high life pressures, and improvement of social support, for guaranteeing their good mental health status.

Acknowledgement

This study was supported by National Social Science Fund: Research on the

YICHUAN ZHANG,HAORAN JIA,KE MA,DA MAO,LIFANG QIAO 1356

government ecological civilization performance under the background of environmental inspecting of general project (No. 18BGL207); Hainan Provincial Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project: Research on the Reform of Ecological Supervision System in Hainan Province (No. HNSK(YB)18-07); Special Project of Hainan University learning and implementation the party's 19th National Spiritual: Study on the spirit of the 19th National Congress and the reform of Hainan's ecological environment supervision system (No. 19DZX1804).

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