Journal of Advance Research in Social Science & Humanities ISSN: 2208-2387

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGES, DURATION OF STAY, AND THE NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS ON COMMUNITY READINESS TO FACE FLOODS IN

Nurul Aini Mehat Tuan Pah Rokiah Syed Hussain1

ABSTRACT– Previous studies have failed to relate the factors of knowledge, experience, and opinions with the aspects of readiness within the community from the perspective of age, duration of stay and the number of households in the flood basin area. Meanwhile, the scope of this study is a basis for the authorities to determine the relating to flooding in certain areas. The objective of the study is to determine the relationship between the age, duration of stay, and the number of households with community readiness from the cognitive aspects to face the flood disaster. The study involved two areas of and . A survey was conducted on 383 respondents using a convenience sample technique. The result of the study shows that the younger the respondent; the better the awareness of flood-related knowledge; the newer the respondent living in an area; the better the awareness of flood-related knowledge, the fewer the people in the household in a family, the better the awareness of flood-related aspects and experience, the newer the duration of one respondent; the better the awareness of flood-related aspects and opinion. The results as a whole show that in the context of a relationship, tests found that respondents' knowledge of flood-related disasters is determined by age and duration of stay only, but the number of the households does not affect a person's knowledge. In the context of the respondents' experience of facing flood disaster, it is only determined by the number of households; while the respondents' opinion is only determined by the duration of their staying.

Keywords: Disaster, Environment, Flood, Kelantan, Monsoon, Readiness

INTRODUCTION The extreme flood phenomenon of 2014 was extensively covered by the local press, and this issue is very serious and needs to be followed by an action in a holistic manner. This will help in finding the best resolution to minimize the loss of life, destruction, and high damage. It will also create a strategy for improvement in the management of major floods when it happens. In the event of the extreme flood disaster, the country suffered a loss of RM2.85 billion, 25 people died and the number of victims involved was high compared to previous years of which 500,000 people (Ibrahim Komoo, 2015; Department of Irrigation and Drainage, 2014). In fact, Department of Social Welfare State of Kelantan (SWD) recorded 13 victims of casualties due to

1 School of Government, College of Law, Government and International Studies, Universiti Utara . Corresponding author: [email protected]

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drowning involving 12 boys and 2 girls and a more tragic is severe devastation to sink some areas, causing many houses in Kuala Krai to be destroyed and disappeared (Syed Hussain & Ismail, 2013). Floods continued to terrorize them in the which had crippled almost the entire affected areas and the depth of flooding above the danger level of 5.0 meters due to the sudden increase of water up to the placement of the victims bringing about 71,561 victims of about 20,395 families displaced (Hussain, et al., 2014). Overall, the floods that occurred apparently threatened the well-being and community life as well as social disruption resulting impact on the community which may affect the quality of life of individuals and communities (Werrity et al., 2007). The research problem was no explanation through the past studies about the readiness of the community to face this disaster in the context of the age, duration of living and number of households. Thus, the objective of the study is to determine the relationship between the factors of age, duration of living, and the number of households with the cognitive aspects of community readiness to face the floods disaster.

LITERATURE REVIEW Cognitive readiness refers to the mental activity or procedure to obtain information and understanding through the experience of thought and reasoning, memory, judgment, and evaluation, thought and calculations and reasoning and critical thinking and leadership base (Kang et al., 2004). This cognitive concept is also described as an intellectual procedure by using the available information and create new knowledge, rational action procedures, and the activity of thought, understanding, knowledge and memory (Petersen et al., 2014). Thus, with the cognitive components of knowledge, experience, and previous opinion can help increase the readiness among the community during the flood event. The flood phenomenon is considered to be a disaster when its occurrence poses a danger and high risk not only of death and loss of property, but it can also give a psychological effects such as the study conducted by Dorji (2006) in Bhutan found the flood victims facing mental health problems, especially trauma throughout life and capable to provide internal problems to individuals or flood victims (Abdul Samad Hadi, 1974; Chan & Parker, 2000). Additionally, previous studies also highlighted the effects of traumatic to the flood victims, among them the study conducted by Acharya et al. (2006), Becker-Blease et al. (2010), Aizhong Liu et al. (2006), Li et al. (2010) and Walsh (2007). For instance, the report obtained from the crisis intervention program and psychological support conducted by the Department of Social Welfare Malaysia (JKMM) on flood victims in Kelantan, found that 14, 995 children and 289 adults were affected by depression and trauma effects of the flood events (Rohani, 2015). Similarly, a study conducted by Chan (1995a; 1995b), on households that inhabit in the floodplain in Malaysia, found that the psychological effects suffered by the flood victims in terms of stress, health, anxiety, and chaos. The psychological impact of these individuals is affected by the damage and destruction of property caused by the floods. In addition to that, previous studies prove that apart from the direct impact on trauma, the victims of the disaster also suffered injuries and physical pain effects of disasters (Hull et al., 2001; Morgan et al.,

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2003; Galea et al., 2005). When the stress response of the disaster became more chronic, it will affect the physical system of the human body such as atherosclerosis, obesity, damaged bones and atrophy of brain cells (McEwen, 2010). In fact, according to Lin and Ensel (2010) life stress if experienced by a disaster victim can damage his physical well-being. Hence, most of the studies carried out indicate the existence of a direct relationship between the effects of disasters with psychological problems. The flood victims who suffer from anxiety and mental health problems have a low perception of themselves (Kamal, 1999) including feeling sad and worried when reminiscing the destruction and loss suffered. Additionally, the lack of readiness will directly cause the flood victims to suffer feelings of low self-esteem. Therefore, a study by Rao (2006), in Bangalore, India found that flood victims need psychological support to prepare themselves to face the flood disaster. This will increase the level of community readiness to flood and help reduce anxiety and stress on the community. Floods are among the critical issues of the world that are often associated with the psychological aspects, in particular, to help improve readiness among individuals when there is an event such as a flood. This is because, mental and psychological preparation will improve the ability to think rationally and will reduce the possibility of any serious injury caused by the disaster and also reduce the loss of life (Reser, 2009). Therefore, cognitive readiness signifies mental preparation for an effective change in response to changing circumstances or unpredictable situation in a rapidly changing world. According to Fletcher (2004), readiness cognitive is a mental preparation (including the skills, knowledge, abilities, motivation, and personality). In addition, cognitive include many dimensions such as knowledge and experience that provide a rational basis for implementing individual actions. Hereby, the aspect of readiness is very important to help people to react and the face of the flood disaster. Thus, the problematic behavior or indiscipline can be avoided and further produce good behavior (Alberto & Troutman, 1990). Gregg (2004) states that readiness is to minimize the potential adverse effect of effective precautionary measures, timely, efficient for any action on emergency response and disaster relief assistance. From a psychological perspective, when dealing with flood disasters, the internal readiness aspect (cognitive and effective) and external (psychomotor) strongly influence community readiness to deal with the issue of flooding. However, this study only focuses on the aspects of cognitive readiness (internal) community. Due to the fact that readiness refers to the mental activity or procedure of obtaining information and understanding through the experience of thinking then, understanding and having a knowledge about flooding is necessary. This will enhance the readiness of society which will enable them to respond before the flooding occurred. According to Valente et al. (1998), behavioral changes that occur when a person's knowledge increases. It is also agreed by Mahadevan (2009) when one's knowledge increases, then this knowledge will provide the impetus for a change in attitude. Burton and Kates (1964) found that those who have previous experience with danger have a more accurate perception of risk, while Halpern-Felsher et al. (2001) found that those with less experience had a higher perception of negative results and

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considers that risk assessment may reflect behavioral experience and not vice versa. Existing experience in an individual is a major factor affecting community readiness to face the flood. Therefore, the perspective of psychology is related to the community readiness because when an individual has the knowledge, experience, and opinions about the dangers of flooding, they will be able to increase the readiness among the community because psychologically, the behavior of readiness can be observed in individual, either an individual expresses his or her opinions for an advantage, or to refrain from getting into difficult situations such as floods (Fletcher, 2004; Tingsanchali, 2012). This includes through the knowledge and experience aspects, if they realize after getting the appropriate information about the benefits of flood- related information and reducing flood damage, then the level of readiness will be increased (Ismail et al., 2015). Thus, this study establishes the cognitive readiness of the community in order to face a flood disaster by placing three aspects of knowledge, experience, and opinion.

STUDY SITE AND METHODOLOGY This study chose Kelantan as it was the most risk and vulnerable area with the Monsoon floods in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Two districts were selected, namely Kota Bharu and Kuala Krai to represent the state of Kelantan. The two districts are selected because almost every year they are involved with a flood event and they suffered the losses in terms of destruction and death as it is in a geo-hazard risks area. Kota Bharu is 40, 900 hectares of which 2.7 percent of Kelantan’s total area and is a focus of 560,100 thousand residents of Kelantan state, which is located near the estuary of at 6 ° 8'N102 ° 15'E. The position of the land in the district of Kota Bharu that almost the entire district is composed of flat and gently sloping land. Kuala Krai which covers 227,670.01 hectares consists of three main areas, namely Batu Mengkebang, Olak Jeram and of the total districts of 35 districts and 216 villages. The geographical location of has an area of 2,329 square km. The research instrument uses a questionnaire which aims to measure the level of cognitive readiness of the community for the population in District of Kota Bharu and Kuala Krai, Kelantan on the flood disaster. The total sample of the study comprises of 383 people and using convenience sampling technique. Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between age, duration of stay, and the number of households on the basis of cognitive readiness.

RESULTY AND DISCUSSIONS The results of the relationship between the age, duration of stay, and the number of households in Kelantan with the components of cognitive awareness (in terms of knowledge, experience, and opinion) found that, in general, there is a significant relationship in a negative situation. Here is a breakdown of the items mentioned above. There are two independent variables of age and duration of stay which have a negative relationship with knowledge. The age variable is significant with the value of r = -. 112 * at the level of p≤0.028 and the study accepted the hypothesis (H1). This situation shows that the independent variables of age affect negatively on the aspects of respondents' knowledge in making preparations for the flood or in

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line with the reduced life of a person, their cognitive readiness is better in facing of the flood disaster. Therefore, the younger the age of the respondent, the more prepared for flood disaster he will be. This may be due to the experience and exposure into the younger group with the danger of flood disaster. Similarly, with the variable duration of stay, the new respondent lived in an area, the more knowledge is faced with the flood disaster. This is evidence that the variable duration of stay is significant with the value of r = -. 109 * at the level of p≤0.033 and the study accepted H2 (Table 1). These findings are not consistent with the opinion of Mubarak et al. (2007) who argued that the older people are more mature thinking or are ready to face anything.

H1 There is a significant relationship between age with knowledge in the face of flood disaster.

H2 There is a significant relationship between the duration of stay with the person's knowledge in the face of flood disaster.

Table 1. Influence of age, duration of stay and the number of households with cognitive readiness

Variables Knowledge Experience Opinion r Sig. r Sig. r Sig. Age -.112* .028 .005 .920 -.057 .265 Duration of stay -.109* .033 -.001 .982 -.119* .020 Number of .024 .644 -.111* .030 -.091 .077 Household * The correlation is significant at the level of 0.05 (2-tailed).

Furthermore, the results of the study the relationship between the variables of experience with age, duration of stay and the number of households in Kelantan also indicate that it was negatively significant. The significant relationship in a negative form means is between an experience variable with the number of households with the value of r = -. 111 * at the level of p≤0.030 and accept H3. This situation illustrates that the fewer family members in a household, the more experience they face in the floods. The findings are consistent with the Rini (2002) opinion that does not necessarily relate to the number of households, but what they go through is more important.

H3 There is a significant relationship between the numbers of households with the experience of a person in the face of a flood disaster.

An analysis of the opinion variables found that the relationship is also negatively significant for the duration of stay variable. This is a significant relationship with the value of r =

-. 119 *, p≤0.020 and accepting H4. This situation explains that the new one was living in a particular area, the better (positive) of their opinion is related to the flood disaster. This condition

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may be due to their own understanding of the hazards and flooding in the event and according to Parsons (1975), this is related to their high cognitive readiness.

H4 There is a significant relationship between the duration of stay with the opinion in the face of a flood disaster.

CONCLUSIONS Flood disaster has struck a major impact on the country and the population. The total loss, destruction of property and loss of life that are significant in Kelantan proves that the flood disaster was not a trivial matter. Overall findings explain that in the context of the relationship tests found that knowledge respondents in relationship flood-related disasters is determined by factors of age and duration of stay only, but the number of households does not affect a person's knowledge. In the context of the respondents’ experience, the flood is only determined by the number of households; while the respondents’ opinion is only determined by the duration of a resident’s residence factor in an area. All the relationships occur in negative forms as the above discussion.

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