Disaster Perception, Self-efficacy and Social Support: Impacts of Drought on Farmers in South Brazil

This paper aims to identify which family resources are affected by droughts. It also aims to assess which variables related to disaster perception, self-efficacy and social support better characterize groups of family farmers classified by the magnitude of the disaster’s impact. 198 farmers aged 18 to 77 years (M = 44.38, SD = 10.04) have participated, of which 104 (52.5%) are males and 88 (44.4%) are females, all residing in rural areas in the Northwest part of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. As instruments, a survey was applied in order to characterize the sample in terms of the disaster and its impacts on different family dimensions as well as items related to disaster perception, self-efficacy and social support. Descriptive statistics and discriminant function analyses were employed; the latter had as dependent variable the magnitude of the perceived drought impact on the family and, as independent variables, the items related to disaster perception, self-efficacy and social support. The descriptive results indicate that drought causes economic losses and changes in family routine and nutrition, generating feelings of uncertainty about the future, discouragement, sadness, and sleep difficulties. The results of the solution stepwise on discriminant analysis (Willks’ Lambda=0.78, λ²=47.844, gl=4, p≤0,001) indicate that the variables uncertainty about the future and sleep difficulties are significant to differentiate the groups of high and medium impact compared to the group of low impact of drought in the family. In a second moment, a new discriminant function analysis was employed (Willks’ Lambda = 0.76, λ² = 52.00, gl = 10, p ≤ 0.001) and showed that farmers in the groups that perceive high and medium drought impacts differ from those in the group that perceives low drought impact with regards to the variables impact of drought on well-being, perception of drought as a bad event, belief in personal responsibility for the event’s consequences and assessment of life in the midst of a disaster The high and medium drought impact groups differ in the variables related to social support, especially with regards to support perceived from family, friends, neighbors and community in relation to government, religious groups and technical support. The variable self-efficacy did not differentiate groups of farmers, suggesting it is independent of the difficulties of the environment, being much more influenced by how we evaluate and position ourselves to face difficulties.