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In response to strong revenue and income losses facing a large share of self-employed individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic, the German federal government introduced a €50bn emergency-aid program. Based on real-time online-survey data comprising more than 20,000 observations, we analyze the impact of this program on the confidence to survive the crisis. We investigate how the digitalization level of self-employed individuals influences the program’s effectiveness. Employing propensity score matching, we find that the emergency-aid program had only moderately positive effects on the confidence of self-employed to survive the crisis. However, self-employed whose businesses were highly digitalized, benefitted much more from the state aid than those whose businesses were less digitalized. This only holds true for those self-employed, who started the digitalization processes already before the crisis. Taking a regional perspective, we find suggestive evidence that the quality of the regional broadband infrastructure matters in the sense that it increases the effectiveness of the emergency-aid program. Our findings show the interplay between governmental support programs, the digitalization levels of entrepreneurs, and the regional digital infrastructure. The study helps public policy to improve the impact of crisis-related policy instruments, ultimately increasing the resilience of small firms in times of crises.
Pandemic depression
(2022)
We investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-employed people’s mental health. Using representative longitudinal survey data from Germany, we reveal differential effects by gender: whereas self-employed women experienced a substantial deterioration in their mental health, self-employed men displayed no significant changes up to early 2021. Financial losses are important in explaining these differences. In addition, we find larger mental health responses among self-employed women who were directly affected by government-imposed restrictions and bore an increased childcare burden due to school and daycare closures. We also find that self-employed individuals who are more resilient coped better with the crisis.
We investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-employed people’s mental health. Using representative longitudinal survey data from Germany, we reveal differential effects by gender: whereas self-employed women experienced a substantial deterioration in their mental health, self-employed men displayed no significant changes up to early 2021. Financial losses are important in explaining these differences. In addition, we find larger mental health responses among self-employed women who were directly affected by government-imposed restrictions and bore an increased childcare burden due to school and daycare closures. We also find that self-employed individuals who are more resilient coped better with the crisis.
Theoretical and empirical studies show increased diversity in crops, supply chains, and markets helps stabilize food systems. At the same time global commodity markets and industrial agriculture have driven homogenization of local and regional production systems, and consolidated power in fewer larger specialized farms and distributers. This is a global challenge, with no obvious global solutions. An important question therefore, is how individual countries can build their own resilience through maintaining or increasing diversity within their borders. Here we show, using farm level data from Germany, that spreading production risk by growing the same crops across different farms carries stabilizing benefits by allowing for increased spatiotemporal asynchrony within crops. We also find that increasing asynchrony between the year-to-year production of different crops has stabilizing effects on food supply. Importantly, the benefits of increasing crop diversity are lower in specialized landscapes growing the same crop on large patches. Our results illustrate clear benefits of diversified crops, producers, and agricultural landscapes to buffer supply side shocks, and for incorporation in subsidies and other regulatory measures aimed at stabilizing food systems.
This article examines public service resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and studies the switch to telework due to social distancing measures. We argue that the pandemic and related policies led to increasing demands on public organisations and their employees. Following the job demands-resources model, we argue that resilience only can arise in the presence of resources for buffering these demands. Survey data were collected from 1,189 German public employees, 380 participants were included for analysis. The results suggest that the public service was resilient against the crisis and that the shift to telework was not as demanding as expected.
This article examines public service resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and studies the switch to telework due to social distancing measures. We argue that the pandemic and related policies led to increasing demands on public organisations and their employees. Following the job demands-resources model, we argue that resilience only can arise in the presence of resources for buffering these demands. Survey data were collected from 1,189 German public employees, 380 participants were included for analysis. The results suggest that the public service was resilient against the crisis and that the shift to telework was not as demanding as expected.
This study evaluates the challenges, institutional impacts and responses of German local authorities to the COVID-19 pandemic from a political science point of view. The main research question is how they have contributed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and to what extent the strengths and weaknesses of the German model of municipal autonomy have influenced their policy. It analyses the adaptation strategies of German local authorities and assesses the effectiveness of their actions up to now. Their implementation is then evaluated in five selected issues, e.g. adjustment organization and staff, challenges for local finances, local politics and citizen’s participation. This analysis is reflecting the scientific debate in Germany since the beginning of 2020, based on the available analyses of political science, law, economics, sociology and geography until end of March 2021.
Positive coping styles and perigenual ACC volume: two related mechanisms for conferring resilience?
(2016)
Stress exposure has been linked to increased rates of depression and anxiety in adults, particularly in females, and has been associated with maladaptive changes in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which is an important brain structure involved in internalizing disorders. Coping styles are important mediators of the stress reaction by establishing homeostasis, and may thus confer resilience to stress-related psychopathology. Anatomical scans were acquired in 181 healthy participants at age 25 years. Positive coping styles were determined using a self-report questionnaire (German Stress Coping Questionnaire, SVF78) at age 22 years. Adult anxiety and depression symptoms were assessed at ages 22, 23 and 25 years with the Young Adult Self-Report. Information on previous internalizing diagnoses was obtained by diagnostic interview (2-19 years). Positive coping styles were associated with increased ACC volume. ACC volume and positive coping styles predicted anxiety and depression in a sex-dependent manner with increased positive coping and ACC volume being related to lower levels of psychopathology in females, but not in males. These results remained significant when controlled for previous internalizing diagnoses. These findings indicate that positive coping styles and ACC volume are two linked mechanisms, which may serve as protective factors against internalizing disorders.
Early maternal care may counteract familial liability for psychopathology in the reward circuitry
(2018)
Reward processing is altered in various psychopathologies and has been shown to be susceptible to genetic and environmental influences. Here, we examined whether maternal care may buffer familial risk for psychiatric disorders in terms of reward processing. Functional magnetic resonance imaging during a monetary incentive delay task was acquired in participants of an epidemiological cohort study followed since birth (N = 172, 25 years). Early maternal stimulation was assessed during a standardized nursing/playing setting at the age of 3 months. Parental psychiatric disorders (familial risk) during childhood and the participants’ previous psychopathology were assessed by diagnostic interview. With high familial risk, higher maternal stimulation was related to increasing activation in the caudate head, the supplementary motor area, the cingulum and the middle frontal gyrus during reward anticipation, with the opposite pattern found in individuals with no familial risk. In contrast, higher maternal stimulation was associated with decreasing caudate head activity during reward delivery and reduced levels of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the high-risk group. Decreased caudate head activity during reward anticipation and increased activity during delivery were linked to ADHD. These findings provide evidence of a long-term association of early maternal stimulation on both adult neurobiological systems of reward underlying externalizing behavior and ADHD during development.
Extreme weather resilience has been defined as being based on three pillars: resistance (the ability to lower impacts), recovery (the ability to bounce back), and adaptive capacity (the ability to learn and improve). These resilience pillars are important both before and after the occurrence of extreme weather events. Extreme weather insurance can influence these pillars of resilience depending on how particular insurance mechanisms are structured. We explore how the lessons learnt from the current best insurance practices can improve resilience to extreme weather events. We employ an extensive inventory of private property and agricultural crop insurance mechanisms to conduct a multi-criteria analysis of insurance market outcomes. We draw conclusions regarding the patterns in the best practice from six European countries to increase resilience. We suggest that requirements to buy a bundle extreme weather event insurance with general insurance packages are strengthened and supported with structures to financing losses through public-private partnerships. Moreover, support for low income households through income vouchers could be provided. Similarly, for the agricultural sector we propose moving towards comprehensive crop yield insurance linked to general agricultural subsidies. In both cases a nationally representative body can coordinate the various stakeholders into acting in concert.
The intangible impacts of floods on welfare are not well investigated, even though they are important aspects of welfare. Moreover, flooding has gender based impacts on welfare. These differing impacts create a gender based flood risk resilience gap. We study the intangible impacts of flood risk on the subjective well-being of residents in central Vietnam. The measurement of intangible impacts through subjective well-being is a growing field within flood risk research. We find an initial drop in welfare through subjective well-being across genders when a flood is experienced. Male respondents tended to recover their welfare losses by around 80% within 5 years while female respondents were associated with a welfare recovery of around 70%. A monetization of the impacts floods have on an individual’s subjective well-being shows that for the average female respondent, between 41% to 86% of annual income would be required to compensate subjective well-being losses after 5 years of experiencing a flood. The corresponding value for males is 30% to 57% of annual income. This shows that the intangible impacts of flood risk are important (across genders) and need to be integrated into flood (or climate) risk assessments to develop more socially appropriate risk management strategies.
The intangible impacts of floods on welfare are not well investigated, even though they are important aspects of welfare. Moreover, flooding has gender based impacts on welfare. These differing impacts create a gender based flood risk resilience gap. We study the intangible impacts of flood risk on the subjective well-being of residents in central Vietnam. The measurement of intangible impacts through subjective well-being is a growing field within flood risk research. We find an initial drop in welfare through subjective well-being across genders when a flood is experienced. Male respondents tended to recover their welfare losses by around 80% within 5 years while female respondents were associated with a welfare recovery of around 70%. A monetization of the impacts floods have on an individual’s subjective well-being shows that for the average female respondent, between 41% to 86% of annual income would be required to compensate subjective well-being losses after 5 years of experiencing a flood. The corresponding value for males is 30% to 57% of annual income. This shows that the intangible impacts of flood risk are important (across genders) and need to be integrated into flood (or climate) risk assessments to develop more socially appropriate risk management strategies.
Social inequalities lead to flood resilience inequalities across social groups, a topic that requires improved documentation and understanding. The objective of this paper is to attend to these differences by investigating self-stated flood recovery across genders in Vietnam as a conceptual replication of earlier results from Germany. This study employs a regression-based analysis of 1,010 respondents divided between a rural coastal and an urban community in Thua Thien-Hue province. The results highlight an important set of recovery process-related variables. The set of relevant variables is similar across genders in terms of inclusion and influence, and includes age, social capital, internal and external support after a flood, perceived severity of previous flood impacts, and the perception of stress-resilience. However, women were affected more heavily by flooding in terms of longer recovery times, which should be accounted for in risk management. Overall, the studied variables perform similarly in Vietnam and Germany. This study, therefore, conceptually replicates previous results suggesting that women display slightly slower recovery levels as well as that psychological variables influence recovery rates more than adverse flood impacts. This provides an indication of the results' potentially robust nature due to the different socio-environmental contexts in Germany and Vietnam.
Social inequalities lead to flood resilience inequalities across social groups, a topic that requires improved documentation and understanding. The objective of this paper is to attend to these differences by investigating self-stated flood recovery across genders in Vietnam as a conceptual replication of earlier results from Germany. This study employs a regression-based analysis of 1,010 respondents divided between a rural coastal and an urban community in Thua Thien-Hue province. The results highlight an important set of recovery process-related variables. The set of relevant variables is similar across genders in terms of inclusion and influence, and includes age, social capital, internal and external support after a flood, perceived severity of previous flood impacts, and the perception of stress-resilience. However, women were affected more heavily by flooding in terms of longer recovery times, which should be accounted for in risk management. Overall, the studied variables perform similarly in Vietnam and Germany. This study, therefore, conceptually replicates previous results suggesting that women display slightly slower recovery levels as well as that psychological variables influence recovery rates more than adverse flood impacts. This provides an indication of the results' potentially robust nature due to the different socio-environmental contexts in Germany and Vietnam.
Migration is a critical issue for child development in the 21st century. We expand on García Coll et al.’s (1996) integrative model of minority child development by drawing from principles of attachment theory and interpersonal relationships research to offer new insights into how youth manage and respond to migration experiences. Immigrant and refugee youth should experience better outcomes to the extent that they (a) maintain strong relationships with caregivers and peers who provide a sense of closeness, safety, and confidence during the process of adjusting to this life transition and (b) find ways to establish a sense of connection and belonging to the new people, places, communities, and social networks within which they now live. Strong bonds to people and connection to places (both familiar and new) can counter the social stratification consequences to minority youth development that are well articulated in García Coll et al.’s integrative model. The need for new and better strategies that promote the positive development of immigrant and refugee youth within their families, schools, workplaces, and communities is crucial, not only for individuals and families but for society as a whole.
Mit Blick auf den Schuldienst existieren viele Studien zur Arbeitsbelastung und Arbeitsbeanspruchung von Lehrkräften. Bereits die Praxisphasen im Lehramtsstudium sind geprägt von zahlreichen Anforderungen für Lehramtsanwärter:innen, weshalb Wissen und Kenntnisse um eigene Ressourcen eine erhebliche Bedeutung für die Ressourcennutzung zur Bewältigung der Anforderungen und zur Gesunderhaltung darstellen. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt den Gesundheitsbegriff sowie die theoretischen Grundlagen der Ressourcen zur Gesundheitsförderung anhand repräsentativer Studien innerhalb sowie außerhalb des Potsdamer Praxissemesters vor. Insbesondere wird sich den Anforderungen im Praxissemester, die durch die Corona-Pandemie geprägt waren, gewidmet. Ziel ist es, angehenden Lehrkräften die wichtigsten Methoden bzw. Strategien der Gesundheitsförderung zu vermitteln und sie damit zur Stärkung ihrer eigenen Gesundheit auch in Zeiten erhöhter Belastung bzw. in Krisenzeiten zu befähigen. Erste empirische Ergebnisse aus einer qualitativen Erhebung zeigen, dass die Teilnehmenden in Bezug auf innere Ressourcen die zentrale Rolle von produktiven Überzeugungssystemen und produktiven Bewältigungsstrategien betonen. Ein Mentoringprogramm, angelegt analog zur Potsdamer AG der Mentor:innenqualifzierung, könnte dazu dienen, inhaltliche Eckpunkte zur Gesundheitsförderung im Unterricht des Praxissemesters zu verankern und angehende Lehrkräfte zu begleiten.
Climate change is expected to exacerbate the current threats to freshwater ecosystems, yet multifaceted studies on the potential impacts of climate change on freshwater biodiversity at scales that inform management planning are lacking. The aim of this study was to fill this void through the development of a novel framework for assessing climate change vulnerability tailored to freshwater ecosystems. The three dimensions of climate change vulnerability are as follows: (i) exposure to climate change, (ii) sensitivity to altered environmental conditions and (iii) resilience potential. Our vulnerability framework includes 1685 freshwater species of plants, fishes, molluscs, odonates, amphibians, crayfish and turtles alongside key features within and between catchments, such as topography and connectivity. Several methodologies were used to combine these dimensions across a variety of future climate change models and scenarios. The resulting indices were overlaid to assess the vulnerability of European freshwater ecosystems at the catchment scale (18 783 catchments). The Balkan Lakes Ohrid and Prespa and Mediterranean islands emerge as most vulnerable to climate change. For the 2030s, we showed a consensus among the applied methods whereby up to 573 lake and river catchments are highly vulnerable to climate change. The anthropogenic disruption of hydrological habitat connectivity by dams is the major factor reducing climate change resilience. A gap analysis demonstrated that the current European protected area network covers <25% of the most vulnerable catchments. Practical steps need to be taken to ensure the persistence of freshwater biodiversity under climate change. Priority should be placed on enhancing stakeholder cooperation at the major basin scale towards preventing further degradation of freshwater ecosystems and maintaining connectivity among catchments. The catchments identified as most vulnerable to climate change provide preliminary targets for development of climate change conservation management and mitigation strategies.
The European Union is highly dependent on soybean imports from overseas to meet its protein demands. Individual Member States have been quick to declare self-sufficiency targets for plant-based proteins, but detailed strategies are still lacking. Rising global temperatures have painted an image of a bright future for soybean production in Europe, but emerging climatic risks such as drought have so far not been included in any of those outlooks.
Here, we present simulations of future soybean production and the most prominent risk factors across Europe using an ensemble of climate and soybean growth models. Projections suggest a substantial increase in potential soybean production area and productivity in Central Europe, while southern European production would become increasingly dependent on supplementary irrigation. Average productivity would rise by 8.3% (RCP 4.5) to 8.7% (RCP 8.5) as a result of improved growing conditions (plant physiology benefiting from rising temperature and CO2 levels) and farmers adapting to them by using cultivars with longer phenological cycles. Suitable production area would rise by 31.4% (RCP 4.5) to 37.7% (RCP 8.5) by the mid-century, contributing considerably more than productivity increase to the production potential for closing the protein gap in Europe.
While wet conditions at harvest and incidental cold spells are the current key challenges for extending soybean production, the models and climate data analysis anticipate that drought and heat will become the dominant limitations in the future. Breeding for heat-tolerant and water-efficient genotypes is needed to further improve soybean adaptation to changing climatic conditions.
Aufgrund der hohen Konzentration von Bevölkerung, ökonomischen Werten und Infrastrukturen können Städte stark von extremen Wetterereignissen getroffen werden. Insbesondere Hitzewellen und Überflutungen in Folge von Starkregen verursachen in Städten immense gesundheitliche und finanzielle Schäden. Um Schäden zu verringern oder gar zu vermeiden, ist es notwendig, entsprechende Vorsorge- und Klimaanpassungsmaßnahmen zu implementieren.
Im Projekt „Urbane Resilienz gegenüber extremen Wetterereignissen – Typologien und Transfer von Anpassungsstrategien in kleinen Großstädten und Mittelstädten” (ExTrass) lag der Fokus auf den beiden extremen Wetterereignissen Hitze und Starkregen sowie auf kleineren Großstädten (100.000 bis 500.000 Einwohner:innen) und kreisfreien Mittelstädten mit mehr als 50.000 Einwohner:innen. Im Projekt wurde die Stärkung der Klimaresilienz als Verbesserung der Fähigkeiten von Städten, aus vergangenen Ereignissen zu lernen sowie sich an antizipierte Gefahren anzupassen, verstanden. Klimaanpassung wurde demnach als ein Prozess aufgefasst, der durch die Umsetzung von potenziell schadensreduzierenden Maßnahmen beschreib- und operationalisierbar wird.
Das Projekt hatte zwei Ziele: Erstens sollte die Klimaresilienz in den drei Fallstudienstädten Potsdam, Remscheid und Würzburg messbar gestärkt werden. Zweitens sollten Transferpotenziale zwischen Groß- und Mittelstädten in Deutschland identifiziert und besser nutzbar gemacht werden, damit die Wirkung von Pilotvorhaben über die direkt involvierten Städte hinausgehen kann. Im Projekt standen folgende vier Leitfragen im Fokus:
• Wie verbreitet sind Klimaanpassungsaktivitäten in Großstädten und größeren kreisfreien Mittelstädten in Deutschland?
• Welche hemmenden und begünstigenden Faktoren beeinflussen die Klimaanpassung?
• Welche Maßnahmen der Klimaanpassung werden tatsächlich umgesetzt, und wie kann die Umsetzung verbessert werden? Was behindert?
• Inwiefern lassen sich Beispiele guter Praxis auf andere Städte übertragen, adaptieren oder weiterentwickeln?
Die Hauptergebnisse zu diesen Fragestellungen sind im vorliegenden Bericht zusammengefasst.
Online hate speech has become a widespread problem in the daily life of adolescents. Despite growing societal and academic interest in this online risk, not much is known about the relationship between online hate speech victimization (OHSV) and adolescents' mental well-being.
In addition, potential factors influencing the magnitude of this relationship remain unclear. To address these gaps in the literature, this study investigated the relationship between OHSV and depressive symptoms and the buffering effects of resilience in this relationship. The sample consists of 1,632 adolescents (49.1% girls) between 12 and 18 years old (M-age = 13.83, SDage = 1.23), recruited from nine schools across Spain.
Self-report questionnaires were administered to assess OHSV, depressive symptoms, and resilience. Regression analyses revealed that OHSV was positively linked to depressive symptoms.
In addition, victims of online hate speech were less likely to report depressive symptoms when they reported average or high levels of resilience (i.e., social competence, personal competence, structured style, social resources, and family cohesion) compared with those with low levels of resilience.
Our findings highlight the need for the development of intervention programs and the relevance of focusing on internal and external developmental assets to mitigate negative outcomes for victims of online hate speech.