essay about filipino resilience

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The Spirit of Being Resilient in Filipino Culture

There are plenty of people who, after witnessing Filipinos up close enduring typhoons and floods and fires, would say that being resilient is simply part of being Filipino. These become even more clear when the country experiences a natural calamity which is at least once or twice a year. It wasn’t too long ago that the enormous superstorm in recorded history steamed through the country leaving massive destruction in its wake. It wasn’t too long after that when another typhoon called Ondoy ravaged Metro Manila, creating floods that covered houses. And just this week, another storm called typhoon Ulysses rivalled the massive floods of typhoon Ondoy , leaving swaths of Metro Manila under 10 feet of water again.

It is during these calamities when the resiliency of a Filipino shines through. They pick up where they left off and get to work. They save what they can and fix what has been damaged, but they keep moving forward. Some might wonder where this resilience of Filipino spirit comes from, but some would say that it is part of the culture honed by hundreds of years of living under the thumb of more immense, more powerful nations. Others might say that while Filipinos understand suffering, they also realise that joy can be found in the little things in life and that those little things that make us happy, when put together, can make all the difference in the world.

Understanding Being Resilient in Filipino People

It’s effortless to spot examples of the resilience of Filipino people. You can see it in a lot of pictures that often make it to magazines only because it looks so strange from an outsiders’ perspective. These pictures depict children playing basketball while waist-deep in floodwater, it shows people offering what little food they have after a calamity to anyone who happens to be walking by. It shows Filipinos caring for their pets amid natural disasters.

For Filipinos, these are not newsworthy pictures which is why they often only make the news in foreign newspapers or websites. For Filipinos, this is common in everyday life. There is a mix of the natural spirit of being resilient in Filipino, of culture, and of the simple Filipino act of finding moments of peace even during a disaster.

It might be best understood with an age-old story where someone takes a glass jar and pours sand into it, saying that the sand represents different things in life – school, career, commitment, and so on. And then at the end, when the jar is full, they take a bottle of beer and pour it in, saying that the lesson is you always have time for a beer and conversation with friends. It’s the same for the resilience of a Filipino – no matter what happens, there are family and friends to enjoy a meal and even a bit of conversation.

The Resiliency of a Filipino is Built into the Culture

A little-known fact about Filipinos is that a polite way of greeting someone is to invite them to share your food. When you approach Filipinos while they’re enjoying a meal, they will greet you with a cheery “Kain tayo or Kaon ta,” which translates to “Let’s eat.” Small gestures like this are built into the Filipino culture, one of which is the ironclad habit of helping your neighbours or giving food to those who don’t have it.

But more than generosity and innate friendliness, Filipinos are also some of the most practical people in the world. In the face of hardships, Filipinos are less likely to question why such difficulties could happen but are more likely to accept that bad things do happen. The real question for a Filipino is, what should we do next?

These can be seen during the corona pandemic when so many people lost their jobs. Instead of throwing their hands up, the resilience of the Filipino spirit showed in how most people adapted to their change in circumstances. Whether it’s to sell baked goods online or to learn to buy and sell items via popular eCommerce websites or to find work online, most people in the Philippines looked at what needed to be done and took the next step.

The Resiliency of the Filipino is Finding Strength in Family

There are times when the Filipino culture of having a close-knit family can be a pain, like when your Auntie asks when you’re getting married, something that happens often enough during the holidays. But the great thing about having a close-knit family as most Filipinos do is that there’s always someone to lend you a sympathetic ear and even a helping hand when times get tough.

But the most important thing about having a Filipino family is that you will always have someplace to go, even if it’s your third or fourth cousin from your mom’s side whom you haven’t seen in fifteen years. For Filipinos, when family shows up at your door, you let them in. Much like how Robert Frost’s famous poem goes, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”

Seeing the Resilience of the Filipino Spirit in a Different Light

Some would say that the resilience of the Filipino spirit may be holding the country back. Instead of reacting as most cultures do, Filipinos tend to take things in stride which could open the doors for abuse and neglect. While there is a grain of truth in saying that resilience in Filipinos can be taken advantage of, it has proven its real value, especially during the struggles and difficulties of the Corona pandemic.

As other cultures face staggering increases in unemployment, most of the Philippines explored other avenues of making a living and moved on with their lives. And even in a ‘dark horse’ disaster like the current pandemic, Filipinos continue to find small pleasures throughout their day, as expected from the resilience of the Filipino spirit.

For you bayan, What is the meaning of Resiliency in Filipino? I’d love to hear it from you. Please comment below.

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4 thoughts on “ The Spirit of Being Resilient in Filipino Culture ”

Comment Hi bayan kamzta. Enjoy Lang ta Ani bahala naay bagyo importante naa si Lord Ang atong lakas. Hind Tayo pinabayaan Ng panginoon. Ang problema enjoy Lang NATO.

Yes bayan sakto jud ka ana. Tagaan ta ug lakas ug tibay ng loob ni Lord para ma conquer ning tanan na pagsulay sa atoa. God job bayan! Amping u dira. We’ll get through this.

Seems like they failed to State the fact that Filipinos are very spiritual people with the exceptional love of God🙏😃

It’s always good to see how people express themselves. This is a great example of somebody who has had enough faith in their belief system, even when they don’t understand everything or agree with every single detail!

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

The importance of well-being on resiliency of filipino adults during the covid-19 enhanced community quarantine: a necessary condition analysis.

• 1 College of Arts and Sciences, Manila Tytana Colleges, Pasay, Philippines
• 2 Psycli-Nik Psychological Assessment and Intervention Services, Zamboanga City, Philippines

Nation-wide community quarantines and social distancing are part of the new normal because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Since extensive and prolonged lockdowns are relatively novel experiences, not much is known about the well-being of individuals in such extreme situations. This research effort investigated the relationship between well-being elements and resiliency of 533 Filipino adults who were placed under the nationwide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants comprised of 376 females (70.56%) and 157 males (29.45%). The median and mode ages of the participants is 23 years, while 25 is the mean age. PERMA Profiler was used to measure participants’ well-being elements, while Connor-Davidson Resiliency Scale-10 (CD-RISC-10) was used to measure their resiliency. Collected data were analyzed using the regression model and necessary condition analysis. This study corroborated that all the five pillars of well-being are significant positive correlates of resiliency ( p < 0.00) in quarantined adults. The results shown accomplishment ( β = 0.447, p < 0.01) positively predicts resiliency, while negative emotions ( β = −0.171, p < 0.00) negatively predict resiliency. Lastly, the five pillars of well-being are necessary-but-not-sufficient conditions (ceiling envelopment with free disposal hull, CE-FDH p < 0.00) of resiliency. Our results cast a new light on well-being elements as constraints rather than enablers of resiliency. This novel result shows that optimum resiliency is only possible when all the five pillars of well-being are taken care of and when a person is at least minimally contented with their physical health. The present findings underscore the importance of a holistic as against an atomistic approach to maintaining good mental health, which suggests that deficiencies in certain areas of well-being may not be fully addressed by overcompensating on other areas, as all five pillars of well-being are necessary-but-not-sufficient conditions of resiliency. The study ends with the recommendation for the use of necessary condition analysis to study both classical and novel psychological research problems.

The Importance of Well-Being on Resiliency of Filipino Adults During the COVID-19 Who are Community Quarantined

The infectious Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which causes respiratory illness includes flu-like symptoms such as cough, fever, and in more severe cases, breathing difficulties. COVID-19 is mainly spread through contact with an infected person who sneezes or coughs. It can be acquired when a person touches their eyes, nose, or mouth after touching objects or surfaces that have the virus on it ( World Health Organization, 2020 ). Starting December 2019, countries imposed travel bans and asked individuals who have possibly been exposed to the contagion to isolate themselves in a dedicated quarantine facility or at home ( Brooks et al., 2020 ) at an unprecedented scale. The Philippines reported its first case of COVID-19 on January 30, 2020. Since then, the number of reported cases exponentially increased by the day ( ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group, 2020 ). As of December 12, 2020, 447,039 infected cases were reported throughout the country. Of the total number of cases, 409,329 have recovered, and 8,709 have died ( Department of Health, 2020 ).

As a response to the growing threat of the pandemic, the entire Luzon was placed under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ; Medialdea, 2020 ). Shortly, both Visayas and Mindanao followed suit. The said measure involves draconian restrictions: that include the establishment of checkpoints in most cities; the suspension of classes in all levels; the prohibition of mass gatherings; the temporary shutting down of non-essential businesses; the banning of public utilized utility vehicles; and the strict implementation of home isolation. Although it was initially planned to end on April 12, 2020 ( Abueg, 2020 ), several subsequent recommendations both from the national and local governments extended the nationwide community quarantine until December 31, 2020 ( CNN Philippines Staff, 2020 ). As the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shrank 16.5% in the second quarter of 2020, the Philippines officially entered recession as an effect of the extended quarantines ( Agence France-Presse, 2020 ). While quarantine is often among the initial responses against an emerging infectious disease ( Parmet and Sinha, 2020 ), it is often unpleasant for those who are required to submit to it and may lead to several harmful conditions for some persons ( Hawryluck et al., 2004 ; Brooks et al., 2020 ). Hence, the psychological effects of quarantine have received considerable attention. Barbisch et al. (2015) reported that losing autonomy, isolation away from loved ones, uncertainty, and boredom could lead to adverse effects on an individual’s well-being. Following the imposition of cordon sanitaire in previous outbreaks, substantial anger, anxiety and even an increase in suicide rates have been reported ( Brooks et al., 2020 ). Similarly, the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) in the Philippines reported that depression and other mental health issues were on the rise after imposing ECQ in different provinces in the country ( Tenorio, 2020 ).

Well-Being and Its Elements

It is important to note that while quarantines are often unpleasant, their effect on people diverge. While there are individuals who experience mental health issues, there are also those who are more resilient and can move on with their lives. This highlights the importance of studying not only how individuals suffer in light of community quarantines, but also how they cope, and even flourish in the face of such challenging times. Seligman (2011) argued that even in difficult situations, human beings are motivated to thrive and not just merely survive. According to Fredrickson and Losada (2005) , flourishing means living “within an optimal range of human functioning, one that connotes goodness, generativity, growth, and resilience.” Based on this definition, resilience appears to arise from flourishing. Well-being predicts resiliency. For clarity, the terms “flourishing,” “thriving,” and “well-being” are used interchangeably in the literature ( Butler and Kern, 2016 ). Therefore, we also use the terms interchangeably here.

Well-being Theory of Seligman (2011) advocates that flourishing arises from five well-being pillars-Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment, hence PERMA. It is important to note that no single element defines well-being, but each contributes to it. Positive emotions include an extensive variety of feelings, which include excitement, satisfaction, pride, and awe. Previous reviews highlight the important role of these emotions in positive life outcomes ( Butler and Kern, 2016 ). Engagement involves activities that stimulate and develop upon an individual’s interests. Csikszentmihalyi (2009) argues that true engagement leads to a state of deep and effortless involvement where an individual is completely absorbed in an activity that often leads to a sense of joy and lucidity. Relationships are social connections important in stimulating positive emotions. They can either be work-related, familial, romantic, and even platonic. The experiences that contribute to well-being are often amplified through our relationships. Positive relationships have been linked to positive outcomes such as better physical health, healthier behaviors, less psychopathology, and lower mortality risk ( Tay et al., 2013 ). A sense of meaning is derived from having a direction in life, belonging to a cause larger than the self, and serving a purpose greater than one’s immediate needs ( Steger, 2012 ). Such activities provide a sense that life is valuable and worthwhile. Various societal institutions such as religion, politics, justice, and community social causes enable a sense of meaning. Accomplishments are pursuits toward and reaching goals, mastery, and efficacy to complete tasks ( Butler and Kern, 2016 ) in various domains such as the workplace, in sports and games, and even in hobbies and interests. Seligman (2011) argued that people pursue accomplishments even when they do not result in positive emotions, meaning, or relationships. Although PERMA was developed mainly within the Western context, several researches found that PERMA is experienced in culturally consistent manners in non-Western societies such as the United Arab Emirates ( Lambert and Pasha-Zaidi, 2016 ), Hong-Kong ( Lai et al., 2018 ), and the Philippines ( Nebrida and Dullas, 2018 ).

Defining Resilience

Over the past decade, resilience has become a popular concept in both research and clinical practice ( Kumpfer, 2002 ; Walsh-Dilley and Wolford, 2015 ). Despite the lack of consensus in how it is defined ( Vella and Pai, 2019 ), it is accepted that resilience involves the positive adaptation following a stressful or adverse experience ( Porterfield et al., 2010 ). Most definitions acknowledge two key points about resilience ( Herrman et al., 2011 ). First, is that various factors interact with it. For example, personal characteristics such as personality traits ( Oshio et al., 2018 ), self-esteem ( Karatas and Cakar, 2011 ), and even age ( Diehl and Hay, 2010 ) influence resilience. Social and community factors ( Harms et al., 2018 ) such as secure attachments, the presence of a role model ( Levine, 2003 ), family stability ( Grubman, 2018 ), and culture ( Ungar, 2008 ) affect the ability to cope with daily struggles. Second, resilience is time and context-specific and may not be present across all life domains. Resilience appears to be receptive to the influence of specific situations ( Hayman et al., 2017 ) such as unique stressors ( Jex et al., 2013 ) like war and other happenstances ( Besser et al., 2014 ).

While the aforementioned literature provides key insights into the definition, factors, and contexts of resilience, most research focuses on factors are outside the control of the individual. While these researches are important in explaining the development of resilience, they lack emphasis on positive mechanisms, which are behaviors a person can perform to facilitate resilience. While resilience has been studied both in daily and unique stressors, none focused on the novel situation of wide range community quarantines. Therefore, despite the abundance of resilience-related research, the question remains “What positive mechanisms are involved in the resilience of people who are subjected to quarantine?”

The Present Study

In this paper, we introduced a novel approach in understanding the necessary but not sufficient nature of the aforementioned positive aspects of well-being in predicting resiliency. We used Dul (2016) Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA), which seeks to identify necessary-but-not-sufficient conditions in data sets ( Dul, 2018 ). A necessary condition is a crucial factor in an outcome. If it is not in place, the outcome will not be achieved, but its sole presence does not guarantee that the outcome will be obtained. Without the necessary condition, however, there is a certain failure, which may not be compensated by other determinants of the outcome. Necessary (but not sufficient) conditions widely exist in real-life. For example, the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is a necessary-but-not-sufficient condition for COVID-19 ( World Health Organization, 2020 ). Without SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, an individual will not acquire COVID-19. However, even with SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, an individual may or may not acquire COVID-19. In the same light, a college student who wants to pass the course, Introduction to Psychology (the outcome) needs to attend 80% of lecture hours (necessary conditions). However, attending class regularly does not guarantee passing the course as other requirements (examinations, seat-works, research work, and journal critique paper) play a role in a student’s grade. Yet, if the student incurs too many absences and tardiness, failure is guaranteed. As seen in the aforementioned examples, necessary causes are not automatically sufficient. They can be seen as constraints, barriers, or obstacles one needs to deal with to arrive at the desired outcome.

While well-being and resiliency are closely related concepts ( Hu et al., 2015 ) Flourishing model of Seligman’s (2011) perceives resiliency as the result of both “surviving” and “thriving” psychological characteristics. This theoretical relationship between well-being and resilience has gained empirical support in recent years ( Harms et al., 2018 ). For example, Martínez-Martí and Ruch (2017) and Burns and Anstey (2010) demonstrated that measures of well-being are not simply redundant with self-report scales of resilience. At the same time, while the relationship between these two concepts are robust, it is rarely straightforward ( Harms et al., 2018 ). Interestingly, some researchers ( Fredrickson et al., 2003 ; Tugade and Fredrickson, 2004 ; Ong et al., 2006 , 2010 ; Kuntz et al., 2016 ) argued that optimal levels of PERMA elements predict resilience in normal sample.

In the light of the foregoing, the present study aims to investigate how PERMA predicts the resiliency of community quarantined individuals. An explanation of possible necessary-but-not-sufficient conditions of resiliency during quarantine may have both theoretical and practical value. Theoretically, an investigation of this sort allows the advancement of our understanding of how a multitude of variables coalesces to produce resiliency in times of quarantine and social isolation. This is significant as wide-range and prolonged quarantines are relatively novel experiences. Hence, not much is known about its psychological implications for human beings. Psychological interventions may target different necessary-but-not-sufficient variables jointly. Because of NCA’s ability to identify bottleneck variables ( Dul, 2019a ), conditions that must be present for resiliency to be possible, interventions may prioritize bottleneck variables of resiliency to maximize the use of limited resources. Lastly, identifying necessary-but-not-sufficient conditions for resiliency may also help individuals who are quarantined to develop their understanding of the behaviors they need to engage to have resiliency. Following this logic, we hypothesize that:

H 01 : PERMA elements predict the resiliency of the community-quarantined individuals.

H 02 : PERMA elements are necessary, but not sufficient conditions, for the resiliency of the community-quarantined individuals.

Methodology

Research design.

To test the assumption that PERMA elements are both sufficient and necessary conditions of resiliency in community quarantined individuals, sufficiency and necessity observational design were used concurrently. In these designs, the conditions (PERMA) and the outcome (resiliency) are observed in real-life context and without the manipulation of the condition. While sufficiency and necessity observational research designs follow the same data gathering procedures, they diverge in data analysis. Dul (2016) argued that NCA is a complement to traditional approaches to analyze relations. As in our research, by using multiple regression we could spot determinants that contribute to resiliency, whereas NCA allowed us to spot critical determinants (constraints) that prevent resiliency from developing. These bottlenecks, when present, prevents resiliency from occurring even when we increase the values of other determinants unless we take away the bottlenecks by increasing the value of the critical determinant. NCA lead us to discover critical determinants that were not part of the determinants identified with the regression model. Using both approaches is critical in adequately understanding the resiliency of individuals who are subjected to the extended ECQ.

Research Participants

Because of the restrictions in both mobility and social interactions as direct consequences of the nationwide ECQ, we used purposive – convenience sampling to recruit Filipino Facebook users who reside in communities placed under the ECQ. The survey was promoted through social media, primarily on Facebook. A total of 541 participants responded to our online survey via Google Form. The minimum age reported was 16 years old, while the maximum age was 64 years old with a median of 23. Because resiliency scores are contingent to age, only those whose ages ranged between emerging adulthood to early middle adulthood (18–40) were included in the study.

Inclusion Criteria

Participants that were considered to partake in the research met the following criteria: first, a participant must be aged 18 to 40 years old. Second, he/she resides in a quarantined area in the Philippines. Third, a participant must be a Filipino citizen as social and cultural factors influence resiliency.

Exclusion Criteria

A participant was excluded in the research because of the following conditions: first, a participant aged less than 18 years old and over 40 years old, a participant who refused to completely answer the online survey questionnaires, and a participant who does not reside in a quarantine area in the Philippines.

Ethical Considerations

In dealing with the participants, respect and protection of the privacy of the participants were prioritized. Thus, privacy and anonymity was of paramount importance. Also, voluntary participation of the chosen participants for said the study was important. Participants had the right to withdraw from the study at any phase of the research if they wished to do so.

Potential participants were fully informed regarding the research, full consent was essential and obtained from the participants. The first page of the online questionnaire required participants to check a box to show consent before having access to the survey. The principle of informed consent involved the researchers providing sufficient information and assurances about taking part to allow potential participants to understand the implications of participation and to reach a fully informed, considered, and freely decided about whether to do so, without the exercise of any pressure or coercion. No incentives were provided in return for their participation.

In collecting data through online surveys, we minimized intrusions on privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality. Before data collection, an adequate level of confidentiality of the research data was ensured to the participants to make them feel secured and protected with the information they shared or contributed. Also, any communication about the research was observed with respect and transparency. Ultimately, research participants are not subjected to harm.

Research Instruments

Google Forms was used to gather sociodemographic variables from the sample and deliver the following self-administered scales, which were used to measure the variables of the current study. Specifically, we used the Connor-Davidson Resiliency Scale-10 (CD-RISC-10) to measure their resiliency, and the PERMA Profiler to measure participants’ well-being elements.

Connor-Davidson Resiliency Scale

The CD-RISC-10 is a 10 item scale that is used to measure resiliency, operationally defined as the ability to “thrive in the face of adversity” ( Connor and Davidson, 2003 ). The unidimensional CD-RISC-10 evaluates several components of psychological pliability: the abilities to adapt to change, manage what comes along, handle stress, stay focused and think clearly, avoid getting discouraged in the face of failure, and handle unpleasant emotions such as pain, sadness, and anger ( Campbell-Sills and Stein, 2007 ). Each item is rated on a five-point range of responses. The total score is computed by getting the sum of all the responses whereby higher scores show high resilience ( Scali et al., 2012 ). Campbell-Sills et al. (2009) maintained that CD-RISC-10 has a median score of 32 with lowest to highest quartiles of 0–29 (Q1), 30–32 (Q2), 33–36 (Q3), and 37–40 (Q4) in general sample. As a widely used scale, CD-RISC-10 has achieved remarkable internal consistency of 0.89 in general population samples. It is both valid and reliable within the context of different cultures, including Filipino samples ( Campbell-Sills and Stein, 2007 ).

PERMA Profiler

The PERMA Profiler is a brief scale that measures the five pillars of well-being: positive emotion, engagement, positive relationships, meaning, and accomplishment, together with negative emotions and health ( Butler and Kern, 2016 ) along a 10-point Likert type scale. Of the 23 items, 15 correspond to the five core elements of well-being (three items per PERMA domain). In addition, eight items were included to test negative emotions (three items), physical health (three items), loneliness (one item), and overall well-being (one item). All items are expressed positively and higher scores denote better well-being except for negative emotions. Subscale scores are calculated by getting the mean of the three items on each subscale, except for loneliness. Overall well-being is calculated by averaging all items except those from the negative emotions subscale. The measure has been used in various samples and was found to have sufficient psychometric properties ( Cobo-Rendón et al., 2020 ). Butler and Kern (2016) reported that adequate reliability is observed for overall well-being and all subscales, α range from 0.71 to 0.94 across eight studies ( N = 31,966). According to Nebrida and Dullas (2018) , the Tagalog version of the PERMA Profiler has a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.842 in 101 Filipino participants.

In the current study ( n = 533), both PERMA Profiler ( α = 0.927) and CD-RISC-10 ( α = 0.915) have an “excellent” internal consistency. These results confirm that the scales are reliable tools for measuring elements of Well-being and Resiliency, respectively, in our sample.

Data Gathering Procedures

Data gathering lasted from March 23 to April 10, 2020, during the first reset of the nationwide extended ECQ. After securing individuals’ interest to take part in the study, we sent potential participants a link to the survey via Facebook Messenger. The first section of the Google Form shows the title of the research and an overview of the current study. After giving consent, participants could fill out the survey. Participants cannot answer the scales without explicitly agreeing to partake in the study. After securing informed consent, each participant was asked to provide their sociodemographic characteristics and then answer the PERMA Profiler and the CD-RSC-10. Answering both scales did not take the participants more than 20 min. After completing the questionnaire, each participant was virtually debriefed.

At any point, should a participant decide not to proceed with the research, they were free to do so with no implications. All the participant has to do was to close the Google Form window and any previously provided data were not recorded.

Data from Google Form were exported to IBM’s Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and NCA Software for data analysis.

Data Analysis

Frequency and percentage were used to analyze the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants. We used Cronbach’s alpha to determine the internal reliability of the measuring scales. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between PERMA elements and potential predictors of resiliency. Lastly, we used NCA to analyze whether the core elements of well-being are necessary but not sufficient conditions of resiliency.

There are two steps in NCA ( Dul et al., 2019 ), determining ceiling lines and bottleneck tables are the first. Unlike traditional regression models where a line is drawn through the middle of the data in an XY-plot, a ceiling line is created in NCA. This line distinguishes between areas with cases and areas without cases, the zone found in the upper left-hand corner of the plot. However, exceptions such as outliers and errors may be present in a sample so that the empty zone above the ceiling is not empty ( Karwowski et al., 2016 ). The ceiling line is a non-decreasing line (either a linear step function or a straight line) that shows which level of x (well-being elements) is necessary but not sufficient in producing the desired level of y (resiliency).

Dul (2016) identified two techniques in drawing the ceiling line. The first is the non-parametric Ceiling Envelopment with Free Disposal Hull (CE-FDH), which is a piecewise linear line. It is the default ceiling envelopment technique for NCA because it is flexible and intuitive and applies to dichotomous, discrete, and continuous conditions. The second technique is the parametric Ceiling Regression with Free Disposal Hull (CR-FDH), unlike the CE-FDH, this technique smoothens the piecewise linear lines by using a straight line. Because of this, CR-FDH usually has some observations above the ceiling line. Whereas CE-FDH does not. In further comparing the two techniques, CE-FDH is preferred when a straight line does not represent the data because smoothing reduces the size of the ceiling zone as with dichotomous variables and for discrete and continuous variables with relatively low small data sets. CE-FDH is 100% accurate in drawing the demarcation between observations above and observations below the ceiling line.

Quantifying the accuracy of ceiling lines, effect size, and statistical significance of the necessary conditions and necessary inefficiency are the second and final step ( Dul et al., 2020 ). The area of the empty zone above the ceiling line divided by the area where cases would be possible given the minimum and maximum values of X and Y is the effect size of a necessary condition ( Karwowski et al., 2016 ). Therefore, large effect size shows lower ceiling line and greater limitations that well-being elements have on resiliency. On the other hand, if there is a lack of empty space in the scatter plot then well-being elements are not contingents of resiliency. The effect size of a necessary condition can take the values between 0 and 1 where 0–0.1 corresponds to a small effect, 0.1–0.3 a medium effect, 0.3–0.5 a large effect, and d that is greater than 0.5 a very large effect ( Tynan et al., 2020 ). An R package that allows the calculation of various effect size indicators and inferential statistics useful for hypothesis testing is provided by Dul (2016) . The NCA null hypothesis is that the observed effect size is the same as the effect size calculated using random data ( Dul, 2019b ). An estimation of the probability that the observed necessary condition effect size results from comparing two unrelated variables, otherwise known as permutation test, is used to determine statistical significance in NCA ( Dul et al., 2020 ). Observed values of the x and y variables are randomly paired without replacement. Such pairing continues until the sample size is reached and the process is repeated at least 10,000. The resultant value of p is interpreted using traditional thresholds such as α = 0.05 or α = 0.01. Depending on the context of the research, both significance testing and effect size are useful in determining the theoretical and practical importance of an observed outcome ( Tynan et al., 2020 ). We focus our attention on conditions with both d > 0.5 and p < 0.05.

SPSS was used to analyze the frequency and percentage of various sociodemographic variables, the scales’ reliability, and for generating the Regression Model. R Statistical Software with NCA Package was used to conduct NCA.

Profile of the Participants

Participants comprised 376 females (70.56%) and 157 males (29.45%). The median and mode ages of the participants are 23 years, while the mean age is 25. Among the participants 189 (35.46%) were college students, 293 (54.97%) are employed, and 51 (9.57%) are out of work. Lastly, seven (1.31%) participants reported that they had direct contact with someone who was infected with COVID-19, while 100 (18.76%) reside in communities with known COVID-19 cases and 426 (79.92%) have no exposure to the disease.

PERMA as Predictors of Resiliency

Table 1 summarizes the descriptive statistics and analysis results of the study. Results revealed that the mean resiliency score of the participants is 24.83, with a SD of 7.22. PERMA elements including overall well-being are positive and significantly correlated with resiliency. Interestingly, a subjective sense of health (feeling good and healthy each day) showed only a weak, albeit significant positive correlation with resiliency. Negative emotions and loneliness are negatively correlated with resiliency.

Table 1 . Summary statistics, correlations, and coefficient results for regression analysis of study variables.

The multiple regression model with all nine predictors produced R 2 = 0.368, F (9, 523) = 33.83, p < 0.001 with adjusted R 2 = 0.357. This means that 36.8% of the variance in resiliency scores is because of the PERMA elements. As seen in Table 1 , accomplishment ( β = 0.447, p < 0.01) and negative emotions ( β = −0.171, p < 0.00) are the only elements of PERMA with significant regression weights, showing scores on these elements predict resiliency. However, negative emotions have significant negative weight as compared to with standardized coefficients of −0.171 vs. 0.477.

The multiple regression model of the four confounders between the relationship of PERMA elements and resiliency produced R 2 = 0.036, F (4, 528) = 4.90, p < 0.001 with adjusted R 2 = 0.028. It shows that the spread of the confounders is 3.6% between the relationship of the variables. As seen in Table 2 , only employment status (student, unemployed, and employed) with β = 0.14, p < 0.00 is a significant predictor of resiliency.

Table 2 . Confounders between the relationship of PERMA and Resiliency.

PERMA as Necessary-But-Not-Sufficient Conditions of Resiliency

The results of NCA on Resiliency show that all five elements of the original Seligman (2011) PERMA are necessary but not sufficient conditions of Resiliency among individuals who are community quarantined as showed by the size of the empty zone in the XY-plots in Figure 1 . This means that to score 35 in the CD-RISC-10, a score of 1 for positive emotions and engagement, a score of 2 for Positive Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment are necessary.

Figure 1 . Scatterplots of the original PERMA elements ( x ) as necessary conditions of resiliency ( y ). Note: The dashed lines are ceiling lines. The selected ceiling line technique (CE-FDH) do not allow data points above the ceiling line. The solid line is the ordinary least squares regression line.

Figure 2 contains the scatterplots of the four supplementary subscales of Butler and Kern (2016) PERMA Profiler. Only the xy-plot of Overall Well-being ( x ) and Resiliency ( y ) has a “moderately sized” empty zone in the upper left corner of the plot. This is not surprising considering that Overall Well-being is the composite score of the five PERMA elements and health score. The scatterplots of Health ( x ) and Resiliency ( y ), and Negative Emotions ( x ) and Resiliency ( y ) contain discernibly small empty zones. Lastly, the empty zone is absent in the Loneliness ( x ) – Resiliency ( y ) scatterplot. This assumes that Loneliness is not a necessary condition of Resiliency as the presence and size of an empty zone is a sign that a necessary condition is present ( Dul, 2016 ).

Figure 2 . Scatterplots of overall well-being, health, negative emotions, and loneliness ( x ) as necessary conditions of resiliency ( y ). These elements were not in the original Seligman (2011) PERMA model but are supplementary subscales in Butler and Kern (2016) PERMA Profiler. Note: The dashed lines are ceiling lines. The selected ceiling line technique (CE-FDH) does not allow data points above the ceiling line. The solid line is the ordinary least squares regression line.

We summarized the results of the multiple NCA in Table 3 . The observed accuracy of all variables exceeds arbitrary benchmark of Dul (2018) for the desired accuracy of 95%. Dul suggests the use of CR-FDH for interpreting variables with accuracies above 95%. However, since our variables do not follow a normal distribution ( p = 0.00) based on One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test, we used the non-parametric CE-FDH ceiling line technique. Necessary-but-not-sufficient relationships between Resiliency and the five original PERMA elements and the auxiliary components are observed. The NCA effect size range between d = 0.09 and 0.12 based on CE-FDH for the original PERMA elements and d = 0.04 to 0.12 on the supplementary elements, excluding Loneliness. According to recommendations, Positive Emotions, Meaning, Accomplishment, and Overall Well-being of Dul (2016) have medium effect sizes on Resiliency. Engagement, Positive Relationships, Negative Emotions, and Health have small effect sizes on Resiliency. The NCA significance test is powerful enough to rule out an effect being the product of randomness ( Dul et al., 2020 ). Lastly, there is no necessary-but-not-sufficient relationship between Loneliness and Resiliency.

Table 3 . Necessary conditions effect size and significance test for PERMA Profiler subscales predicting Connor-Davidson Resiliency Scale-10 (CD-RISC-10) scores.

The ability to identify bottleneck variables (constraints) is a useful feature of NCA, especially for interpreting multivariate necessary conditions ( Dul, 2019b ). Table 4 , which is read horizontally, shows for which level of resiliency, which level of PERMA elements is necessary. For a desired value of resiliency, in the first column, it shows the minimum required values of the PERMA elements in the next columns. Levels are expressed in percentage ranges so that 0 is the minimum value, the maximum is 100, and 50 is the point between these two values.

Table 4 . Bottleneck table of PERMA elements as necessary conditions of resiliency based on CE-FDH.

The bottleneck table shows that no minimum value of any PERMA element is necessary to score 30% in Resiliency. This means that at 30% no PERMA element is a bottleneck for resiliency. However, for a resiliency level of 40%, the minimum required level of Positive Emotions is 6.9%, the necessary level of Accomplishment is 3.7, 7.1% for Overall Well-being, and none of the over PERMA elements are necessary. As observed in the bottleneck table, when Resiliency increases from 0 to 100%, more PERMA elements become necessary, and required levels of the PERMA elements become higher. At 90% level of Resiliency, the necessary level of Positive Emotions is 34.5%, Engagement is 18.6%, Positive Relationships is 25.9%, Meaning is 26.7%, Accomplishment is 25.9%, Overall Well-being is 34.2%, Health is 6.7%, and Negative Emotions is 42.9%. No level of Loneliness is necessary for any level of Resiliency. Not achieving any of these minimum levels means that attaining a 90% level in resiliency is impossible. Since each condition is a bottleneck, scoring higher in other elements does not compensate for the deficiency in others.

Wide range community quarantines and social distancing are elements that are increasingly becoming the new normal as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Previous research ( Hawryluck et al., 2004 ; Barbisch et al., 2015 ; Brooks et al., 2020 ; Parmet and Sinha, 2020 ) offer invaluable insights into the psychological consequences of restrictions. Moreover, while there has been an interest in the psychological impact of COVID-19 and community quarantine in the Philippines (for example, Nicomedes and Avila, 2020 ; Tee et al., 2020 ), most focus on the negative psychological impact of COVID-19. This raises the question of what protective factors are important in the midst of prolonged community quarantines. To test this properly, we used a combination of the traditional regression model and the novel multivariate necessary-but-not-sufficient conditions analysis to investigate how resiliency is contingent on well-being elements in Filipinos who are community quarantined.

Participants of this study were predominantly female, around the age of 23 and who are employed. While, we specifically targeted individuals between the ages of 18–40, most of our sample are emergent adults (mean age = 25, median, and mode ages = 23). The disproportional representation of young adult females can be attributed to several factors. First, previous studies ( Smith, 2008 ; Yetter and Capaccioli, 2010 ; Slauson-Blevins and Johnson, 2016 ) have reported that young adult females take part in online surveys at a higher frequency compared with their male counterparts. There are more female Facebook users than males ( Lee et al., 2016 ), which is significant because we invited potential participants through Facebook. Lastly, the Philippines has a young population. The median age in the Philippines is 25.7 ( United Nations Statistics Division, 2019 ; Plecher, 2020 ). Taken together, it can be assumed that the sociodemographic characteristics of our study are similar to the Filipino Facebook population.

Based on the CD-RISC-10 quartiles for community sample provided by Campbell-Sills et al. (2009) , the mean resilience score (24.83) of the current sample belongs to the lowest 25%. This implies that the participants of the current study have lower resiliency scores than the general population. This result ties well with the notion that resilience is stress-context specific ( Jex et al., 2013 ; Wood and Bhatnagar, 2015 ; Hayman et al., 2017 ) and that the nature of the sample influences resiliency scores ( Connor and Davidson, 2003 ). Specifically, people with psychiatric problems and those who are experiencing significant stress score lower than the general population ( Li et al., 2012 ; Ye et al., 2017 ). In the context of COVID-19, Nicomedes and Avila (2020) found that Filipinos in community quarantine experience significant stress and scored high on both health anxiety and panic.

While resiliency and well-being have become commonplace terms and construct central in positive psychology ( Jeste et al., 2015 ), they are often studied using correlational methods ( Schultze-Lutter et al., 2016 ), and traditional approaches via the sufficiency paradigm. In line with previous studies ( Souri and Hasanirad, 2011 ; Khawaja et al., 2017 ; van Agteren et al., 2018 ), we found that all elements of well-being are positively correlated with resiliency. Although the multiple regression test shows that among the original PERMA elements, only accomplishment is a significant predictor of resilience. This means that the subjective sense of competence, having a structure each day, i.e., identifying, setting, and achieving daily goals enable resiliency in individuals subjected to quarantine. We also observed that negative emotions significantly, although negatively predict resilience. This suggests the significant predicting function of individuals’ tendency to experience anxiety and anger for lower levels of resilience. These findings support the previously reported ( Tugade and Fredrickson, 2004 ; Chen et al., 2018 ) link between negative emotions and low levels of resilience.

In this paper, we identified elements of well-being that are necessary-but-not-sufficient for resiliency to occur in individuals who are community quarantined. Specifically, Positive Emotions, Meaning, and Accomplishment are significant and moderately necessary conditions of Resiliency, as suggested by their medium effect size. This finding suggests that positive feelings like interest, joy, and contentment and pursuing a daily purpose, and regularly experiencing a sense of accomplishment are essential to quarantined individuals’ ability to thrive in their present predicament. Such necessary conditions not only allow individuals to enjoy everyday experiences ( Abiola et al., 2017 ) but also provide a sense that life matter, which replenishes depleted energy from adverse experiences, and are required in the development of resiliency.

Engagement and Positive Relationships have small yet significant effect sizes on Resiliency. This infers that experiencing a state of “flow,” or being absorbed in an activity ( Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi, 2014 ) and feeling loved, supported, and valued by others are also necessary to the quarantined individuals’ capacity to recover quickly from their daily difficulties. This ties well with previous studies ( Eaude, 2009 ; Svence et al., 2015 ; Abiola et al., 2017 ; Gerino et al., 2017 ; Roncaglia, 2017 ; Cobo-Rendón et al., 2020 ), where well-being elements were observed to be related with the occurrence of resiliency in individuals from a different context. Well-being elements allow quarantined individuals to focus their attention on alleviating harm, preventing negative mental health consequences, and finding positive outcomes in the presence of difficulty.

A unique finding, we encountered is that PERMA elements are bottleneck variables of resiliency. This highlights the little-known capacity of well-being to serve as a constraint to attaining higher levels of resiliency in community-quarantined individuals. This novel result shows two things. First, low levels of resiliency (30% and less) do not necessitate even the slightest well-being elements. Second, higher levels of resiliency require certain levels of all the original PERMA elements and physical health. However, health remains a constant, albeit weak, necessary condition. This means that optimum resiliency is only possible when all the five pillars of well-being are taken care of and when one is at least minimally content with their physical health. When comparing our results to those of older studies ( Sanders et al., 2015 ; Svence et al., 2015 ; Abiola et al., 2017 ). It must be pointed out that while the link between well-being and resiliency has been suggested in these studies, none could establish the necessary-but-not-sufficient relationship between the concepts. The present findings underpin the importance of holistic rather than an atomistic approach to mental health as noted by Mario (2012) and contradicts the compensation hypothesis of well-being. NCA revealed that deficiencies in certain areas of well-being may not be addressed by overcompensating in other areas, as all five pillars of well-being are necessary-but-not-sufficient conditions of resiliency.

Our findings show that loneliness is inversely correlated with the subjective perception of health. This basic result is consistent with the research ( Balter et al., 2019 ) showing that loneliness predicts poor immune systems in healthy young adults. This is important since maintaining good health is vital amidst a growing viral pandemic. We observed that loneliness is a significant negative predictor of resiliency and not a necessary condition for any level of resiliency in individuals who are community quarantined. A similar conclusion was reached by Perron et al. (2014) where individuals who feel resilient also experience less loneliness. This further highlights the importance of the elements of well-being as necessary conditions of resiliency, which may lessen the effects of or serve as a buffer against loneliness and other negative psychological consequences of quarantine.

The overall results of our study have theoretical and practical implications. At a theoretical level, our results found clear support to PERMA concept of Seligman (2011) as necessary ingredients of resiliency even for socially isolated individuals such as those placed in ECQ. This goes beyond previous reports wherein PERMA elements were observed as predictors of resiliency, as only NCA can identify a necessary-but-not-sufficient relationship between the said variables. Despite experiencing segregation like lockdowns, the conditions that will allow people to thrive in the face of adversity are the same as when they are not undergoing such a predicament. Therefore, this finding can help us understand how the five elements of well-being constrain the negative psychological consequences of community quarantine by providing a buffer against these harms, reducing their effects, and promoting individual capacity to cope with such unsettling conditions. From this standpoint, we speculate that PERMA should be inversely correlated with negative indicators of mental health and correspondingly with other elements of positive psychological health, as noted by Hu et al. (2015) . At a practical level, this opens an opportunity to develop evidence-based interventions such as telepsychology ( Zhou et al., 2020 ) for quarantined individuals that help clients understand behaviors they need to engage to have resiliency, and target multiple necessary-but-not-sufficient variables jointly, and not just focus on certain elements of well-being. This provides support for eclectic approaches to therapy especially the ones that incorporate positive psychology as Bolier et al. (2013) noted empirical support for the effectiveness of such interventions. Lastly, our findings agree with the call to a more inclusive psychology in the Philippines. This paradigm shift involves incorporating such approaches as critical ( Paredes-Canilao et al., 2015 ) and positive ( Datu et al., 2018 ) psychology to the prevailing traditional pathology-based perspective.

One fundamental limitation of this study is that the use of multiple regression and NCA cannot guarantee causality ( Dul, 2016 ). While our data is consistent with the causal hypothesis, it is not evidence of a causal connection. Therefore, causal necessary-but-not-sufficient relations should not be inferred from our data. Another important caveat in interpreting our results is that we used the Facebook population as compared to the actual geographical population. It is not a perfect representative since Facebook users are usually younger females who have better educational attainment compared to the general population ( Kosinski et al., 2015 ). Resiliency and well-being were measured during the ECQ, a far from normal situation. Therefore, although we took obligatory safety measures to increase the trustworthiness of the findings, we suggest that care be exercised when generalizing our findings into the general population and normal circumstances.

Many questions remain to be answered concerning the well-being of people who are community quarantined and the utility of NCA in psychological research. Further work is needed to identify the negative consequences of prolonged quarantine on individuals, especially those who have preexisting mental health problems and those who experience a disruption in access to their mental health-care providers. Moreover Odacı and Kalkan (2010) reported that internet use, specifically social media ( Maglunog and Dy, 2019 ) exacerbates loneliness and that social media usage is expected to rise during the ECQ. Another important question, therefore, is how does the ongoing quarantine affects rates and levels of loneliness. Finally, while necessary conditions are traditionally studied using regression analysis in psychological research, NCA proved to be a more useful tool in understanding necessary-but-not-sufficient relationships because of its ability to understand bottleneck variables. We, therefore, recommend the use of NCA in both classical and novel psychological research problems.

Resiliency grants us the capacity to flourish in the face of difficulty. For resiliency to result, the pillars of well-being are essential. Our research reveals, however, that well-being elements could be enablers or constraints. Accomplishment, for example, could predict resiliency. All pillars are necessary to attain it. Compensating in certain aspects cannot address the deficiency in others. Herein lies the importance and significance of holistic well-being. Those who can attain this are better equipped to thrive in the ECQ, a situation that affects the lives of so many Filipinos.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/ Supplementary Material , further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Manila Tytana Colleges Research Ethics Committee. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

DC wrote the introduction, results, and discussion and conducted the necessary condition analysis. LB wrote the methods, contributed in the results and discussion, and conducted the correlation analysis, regression analysis, and reliability check of the scales. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.558930/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords: positive psychology, well-being, resilience, PERMA, COVID-19, necessary conditions and sufficient conditions for optimality, necessary condition analysis, Philippines

Citation: Camitan DS IV and Bajin LN (2021) The Importance of Well-Being on Resiliency of Filipino Adults During the COVID-19 Enhanced Community Quarantine: A Necessary Condition Analysis. Front. Psychol . 12:558930. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.558930

Received: 04 May 2020; Accepted: 01 March 2021; Published: 22 March 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Camitan and Bajin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Desiderio S. Camitan IV, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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[OPINION] Challenging the narrative of Filipino resiliency

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This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

In the wake of 4 typhoons that devastated the Philippines in a two-week span, numerous areas in the country were left submerged, with hundreds of thousands displaced and the death toll still rising. As the country reels from the effects of the typhoons, people have taken to social media to share stories of suffering, and appeals for relief and rescue for those affected. Interspersed between these appeals are calls from netizens not to “glorify resilience.”

What does it mean to glorify resilience and why is it problematic? “Glorify” is defined as “to cause to be or seem to be better than the actual condition.” To glorify Filipino resilience is to make resilience appear better than it actually is. While praising resilience in and of itself is uncontroversial, as with many things, context matters. And it is in the context of post-disaster recovery and survival that the narrative of Filipino resilience often takes centerstage. The narrative of Filipino resilience is derived from overcoming experiences of suffering and trauma due to disasters.

Understanding the context also means taking stock of our experience with how the government has handled disasters. For a country that is regularly battered by typhoons, the government has failed to keep up with the alarming rate of climate change. Despite the abundance of champions of the environment and climate justice, our policies, infrastructure, and general preparedness have always been wanting. 

The issue goes beyond preparedness for environmental emergencies. Lack of sustainable urban planning has resulted in a failure to control urban sprawl, a key issue in prevention. Even the national and local government capacities to effectively handle post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction have been criticized. Moreover, our leaders’ seeming ineptitude in crisis governance and allegations of mishandling of funds that at times follow disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts make matters worse. It is then the height of brazenness when it is our own government leaders who extol narratives of Filipino resilience.

Even when the glorification of resilience is done by members of the public, problems may still arise. There is no denying that typhoons (and disasters in general) affect people of different socio-economic status disproportionately. It is the poorer families and individuals who often find themselves in more vulnerable situations, not by choice but out of necessity. In addition, their insecurity also makes it more difficult for them to recover after disasters. Hence, while disasters cannot discriminate, our country’s socio-economic development does. Therefore, one must bear in mind that having the luxury to glorify resilience comes from a position of privilege.

An intimately related concept that is also used interchangeably with glorification is the concept of romanticization. Romanticization is said to “manifest itself through assimilation or internalization of an event by individuals or a community to obscure its negative implications.” To romanticize resiliency is to present the resilient Filipino as the desired image of a disaster victim — one who survives.

[ANALYSIS] Filipinos aren’t so much resilient as Duterte is incompetent, abusive

Given this backdrop, we can problematize the glorification and romanticization of Filipino resilience for the following reasons:

First, it detracts from the suffering and trauma that victims of disasters are experiencing. It diminishes the sufferings and trauma experienced by the victims. While one can certainly praise resilience while also raising awareness for the victims’ sufferings and trauma, in this context, glorification and romanticization add nothing to the discourse on how to alleviate the harsh realities that victims face. It is ironic that while narratives of Filipino resilience earn them admiration and attention from the public, it does not offer anything tangible that they deserve given the urgency of their situation.

Second, it undermines the importance of immediate action by overemphasizing the image of a Filipino who is able to survive in spite of his/her circumstances, rather than that of a Filipino who is able to survive because he/she is given the support he/she deserves . It shifts the accountability to the victims by implying that overcoming their suffering and trauma is a matter of choosing to be resilient, when in truth, the victims have diminished agency as a consequence of their socioeconomic status or because regardless of the choices they make, institutions have failed to prepare them from the negative consequences of natural disasters. No one chooses to be vulnerable, but the structural causes of their insecurity have forced them to be locked in with few to no options.

Third, it normalizes the vicious cycle of displacement due to disasters – as if those in vulnerable situations should just accept and get used to the experience of displacement every time disasters hit the country. This can lead to an overemphasis on the crisis management component of disaster management over risk management. Focus is primarily placed on assessment, response, recovery, and reconstruction stages while mitigation and prevention, preparedness, and prediction stages are given less attention.

Fourth, the resilient Filipino – one who overcomes in spite of – is idealized at the expense of those who are unable to overcome their sufferings and trauma, further victimizing them. By implication, the victims’ inability to overcome is seen as a weakness and that their own sufferings and trauma are imputed to their own actions. What about those who lost their lives?  Are they mere statistics that are included in reports and then later forgotten?

Finally, the notion of Filipino resiliency as it is portrayed in the mainstream is limited to the idea of resiliency as a virtue, as something that is characteristic of a Filipino. The image of the Filipino who is able to keep faith and overcome his/her hardships is celebrated in popular culture. But the resiliency in the context of disaster risk reduction and mitigation goes beyond that. It includes the capacity of communities (and the country as a whole) to adapt to and recover from disasters or calamities. Government preparedness is a key element of disaster resilience.

In conclusion, while accountability is not solely on the government, the duty of the government to serve and protect demands that our leaders should bear most of the responsibility and accountability. This is especially true in cases where natural disasters may become man-made calamities due to government negligence. While the aim is not to downplay the will and spirit of the Filipino to survive, our experience with government failures and the exploitation of Filipino resilience necessitates challenging the dominant narrative. 

As for offering an alternative to the glorification and romanticization of Filipino resilience, we should challenge the dominant narrative by promoting a discourse beyond resiliency as a virtue . The discourse should be on the kind of resiliency that puts the emphasis on building institutional (i.e., structural) capacities at both local and national levels to adapt and recover. Governance and leadership should also improve to allow for inclusive resilience – one that gives voice to marginalized sectors of society. Individually, we can help amplify the voices of the victims and survivors by echoing their calls for assistance, and helping them voice out their narratives of suffering and trauma. This way, they can take back their agency and challenge the dominant narrative of what it truly means to be a “resilient Filipino.” – Rappler.com

Abu Al-Rasheed T. Tanggol is the Peace Action Coordinator at the Institute for Peace and Development in Mindanao and Associate Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology. He’s been involved in different disaster relief operations in the past for local and international organizations.

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Michael Tan on Filipino resilience: 'True resilience allows people to thrive, not to languish'

In times of crisis, the word "resilience" often comes up when describing the spirit of Filipinos.

Our ability to smile and laugh in the face of hardships has been lauded time and time again, but in recent years, there has been some criticism of this view.

In an episode of "The Howie Severino Podcast," medical anthropologist Michael Tan said the narrative of resilience often ignores the stories behind photos of Filipinos having fun despite their homes getting submerged in flood.

"The most iconic photographs are those taken by foreign journalists. They love to do that," he said. "There's one in Asiaweek many years ago showing a group of men drinking in floodwaters, they set a table up in the floodwaters."

"Do they actually think that speaks of the Filipino? Do you see women drinking with the men? Of course not. They're probably at home saying, 'Ang walang hiyang mister ko, inuubos ang budget sa inom.'"

Tan said what often gets called resilience, such as smiling amid a disaster, is actually "learned helplessness," a term coined by psychologists who studied depression.

"They administered electric shock to dogs and then they found out [that] after a while dogs no longer whined. They just kept quiet. They learned to accept that they were totally helpless," he said.

Like the dogs, Tan said Filipinos have learned to simply accept their situation because they think they cannot do anything to change it.

"'Nandito na eh, sige tanggapin natin,'" he said. "True resilience allows people to thrive, not to languish. The things you see [with Filipinos] is passive acceptance na."

"They languish partly because they'll say, 'Talagang wala na tayong magagawa.' But if we really want to move forward, we do need to develop resilience because what we see is not resilience," he added.

Tan said resilience is when people feel empowered to do something to help their situation.

"Resilience comes when the government and the private sector come together to buffer the impact of disasters. So that people will have time and space to be able to think, 'Anong magagawa natin?'"

—Franchesca Viernes/MGP, GMA News

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Measurement and antecedents of national resilience in Filipino adults during coronavirus crisis

Carmelo callueng.

1 School Psychology Program, Rowan University, Glassboro New Jersey, USA

John Jamir Benzon R. Aruta

2 Counseling and Educational Psychology Department, De La Salle University, Manila Philippines

Benedict G. Antazo

3 Department of Psychology, Jose Rizal University, Mandaluyong Philippines

Alelie Briones‐Diato

4 Department of Teacher Education, Cavite State University, General Trias Philippines

Resilience is a broad concept that encompasses individual and social resources to thrive from difficult circumstances. The resilience that occurs as a collective effort or country‐wide phenomenon is referred to as national resilience (NR), which connotes the ability of a nation to deal with crises while keeping its social fabric intact. Like the rest of the world, the Philippines has been greatly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and we argue that a stable and robust NR is needed to bounce back from the challenges and adversities of the crisis. This pioneering study on NR in Filipino adults was conducted to achieve two aims (1) assess the psychometric properties of the Filipino adapted National Resilience Scale (NRS‐Filipino) and (2) determine demographic and psychological variables that influence NR. Data from 401 participants yielded an exploratory factor analysis with a good model fit for a four‐factor solution that is similar to the original National Resilience Assessment Scale. NRS‐Filipino also demonstrated acceptable reliability and convergent validity. Among the variables purported to be associated with NR, community resilience, and political attitudes came out as strong predictors.

1. INTRODUCTION

The coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) is a severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by coronavirus 2 that originated in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019 (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020a ). The virus is primarily transmitted through microdroplets ejected by an infected person to another person through the upper respiratory tract or the eyes, while aerosol transmission remains under investigation (Kowalik et al., 2020 ). Within 2–14 days after exposure to COVID‐19, infected persons may manifest a wide range of symptoms such as dry cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fever, muscle or body aches, and lung infiltrates (Sohrabi et al., 2020 ). On January 30, 2020, WHO declared the COVID‐19 outbreak as a “public health emergency of international concern” (WHO, 2020b ) and later on March 11, 2020, COVID‐19 was considered a pandemic due to the alarming levels of transmission and global inaction (WHO, 2020c ). At present, there are >19 million confirmed cases and approximately 700,000 deaths worldwide (WHO, 2020d ). Other than a massive loss of life, the pandemic is projected to trigger a global economic recession (International Monetary Fund, 2020 ) and an increase in the number of individuals experiencing mental health concerns (Fiorillo & Gorwood, 2020 ; United Nations, 2020 ).

In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of public health emergency on March 8, 2020, due to an increasing number of documented COVID‐19 cases as early as January 2020. A few days later, the national government implemented the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) measures that placed the National Capital Region and the entire Luzon island on lockdown to contain the spread of the virus. ECQ totally prohibited mass gatherings and limited movement of people. ECQ guidelines entailed closure of nonessential business establishments, public and private agencies, schools, and local and international transport systems. A work from home scheme was adopted by public and private offices through online delivery of services and transactions. A skeletal workforce consisting of the military, frontline health, and emergency workers, and those ensuring border control were not covered by the ECQ. The rest of the country was placed under general community quarantine (GCQ) that allowed local government units some flexibility in implementing lockdown depending on the risk level of the area. For example, one member in every household is allowed to go out for essential needs within a specific time frame during the day (ECQ and GCQ Guidelines, 2020 ). Most recent COVID‐19 statistics from the Philippine Department of Health ( 2020 ) reported >120,000 confirmed cases and nearly 2200 deaths.

The extreme adversity brought about by the COVID‐19 pandemic can be a huge threat to the stability and resilience of the Philippines. Although the Philippines has experienced natural disasters and sociopolitical conflicts, the COVID‐19 pandemic that generally placed the Philippines on lockdown for >4 months now is the first crisis on a national scale that required an unprecedented level of response. This study is a pioneer in examining perceptions of Filipinos on national resilience (NR) that may contribute to increasing empirical interest in understanding the concept of NR at a level of global crisis such as the COVID‐19.

1.1. National resilience

Resilience is a broad concept that constitutes psychological and social resources to thrive from difficult circumstances. Compared with psychological or individual resilience, research on NR is limited (Eshel & Kimhi, 2016a , 2016b , 2016c ; Kimhi & Eshel, 2019 ). NR refers to the ability of a nation to deal with its crises while keeping its social fabric intact (Canetti, Waismel‐Manor, Cohen, & Rapaport, 2014 ), and is comprised of the four major components of patriotism, optimism, social integration, and trust in political and public institutions (Ben‐Dor, Pedahzur, Canetti‐Nisim, & Zaidise, 2002 ). Israel has been a pioneering context in NR research and findings point to these components as leverage to Israel's ability to cope with half a decade of Israel–Palestinian conflict (Elran, 2006 ; Gal, 2014 )

Cross‐national studies on NR began quite recently (Kimhi et al., 2018 ) and findings concur that the concept of NR is an important factor for nations that are dealing with adversities (Marciano, Kimhi, & Eshel, 2019 ).

1.2. Measurement of NR

Previous studies used the National Resilience Assessment Scale (NRAS; Kimhi, Dror, & Sapir, 2017 ; Kimhi, Goroshit, & Eshel, 2013 ) to measure the construct of NR; however, Kimhi ( 2016 ) noted that validity of NRAS was not adequately substantiated. To fill this gap, Kimhi, Eshel, Lahad, and Leykin ( 2019 ) investigated the psychometric properties of the 25‐item NRAS using data from Jewish Israeli adults. Findings of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) indicated that 24 items clustered into four distinct yet somewhat related factors: identifying with the state, solidarity and social justice, trust in national institutions, and trust in public justice. The reliability of the NRAS was strong, which was replicated in a cross‐cultural study (Kimhi et al., 2018 ) that included student samples from Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, and Greece.

In an attempt to develop an efficient measure of NR for use in cross‐national research and across adversities, a short version of the NRAS was validated using data from a sample of Israeli adults (Kimhi et al., 2018 ). EFA results yielded 13 items to form the National Resilience Scale short version (NR‐13) with three independent but related factors describing identification with one's country, solidarity and social justice, and trust in public institutes. In addition, the internal consistency of the NR‐13 ranged from adequate to strong across international samples (Kimhi et al., 2018 ).

1.3. Determinants of NR

NR construct has been further studied in terms of association with demographic and psychological factors, which in turn provided support to convergent validity of the NRAS and NR‐13.

1.3.1. Demographic factors

Past studies (Eshel & Kimhi, 2016a , 2016b , 2016c ; Kimhi & Eshel, 2019 ; Kimhi et al., 2019 , 2013 , 2018 ) reported the influence of demographic factors on NR. Findings indicated that gender was associated with NR with males reporting a higher level of resilience than females. Age was significantly and positively correlated with NR. Moreover, participants who disclosed as more religious and inclined to right‐wing political attitudes reported greater perceived NR. Compared with those residing in more communal areas urban, or city residents had higher perceived NR.

1.3.2. Suppressing factors

Distress, sense of danger, and perceived threat were examined in this study as suppressing factors of NR. Distress is defined as having anxiety and depression symptoms. Sense of danger refers to a persisting fear of future danger which can negatively impact postadversity adaptation (Eshel & Kimhi, 2016a , 2016b , 2016c ). Studies with Israeli adults and higher education students reported a negative correlation of distress and sense of danger with NR (Eshel, Kimhi, & Marciano, 2020 ; Kimhi et al., 2019 ; Kimhi, Eshel, Leykin, & Lahad, 2017 ; Marciano et al., 2019 ). That is, the more distressed and greater sense of danger, the lower is the perceived NR. Similarly, there was a significant negative relationship of distress and sense of danger with NR in higher education students from Australia, Great Britain, and Israel but not significant in students from Germany and Greece (Kimhi et al., 2018 ).

Perceived threat refers to a person's evaluation of potential threats of harm or danger to self or others (King, King, Gudanowski, & Vrevren, 1995 ). This construct has been primarily linked to posttraumatic stress disorder (Huang & Kashubeck‐West, 2015 ) as well as negative emotions such as harm, anxiety, challenge, and distress (Kimhi & Eshel, 2012 ). A previous study involving college students in Israel indicated that the perceived threat of war was negatively related to public resilience (i.e., a combination of community resilience and NR; Kimhi & Eshel, 2012 ). No study has examined yet the link between perceived threat of COVID‐19 and NR. However, a very recent study in adults from 35 countries reported that the likelihood of feeling threatened by COVID‐19 increases significantly with age, number of days in quarantine, emotionality, and hoarding behavior. In addition, the perceived threat of the pandemic was found to be significantly higher in adults from North America compared with their peers from Europe (Garbe, Rau, & Toppe, 2020 ).

1.3.3. Promoting factors

In this study, individual resilience and community resilience were considered as promoting factors of NR. Individual resilience has been the scope of most resilience research (Kimhi et al., 2017 ) and is defined as the capacity of an individual to maintain healthy functioning despite adversities and the ability to adapt to extremely distressing situations (Eshel et al., 2020 ). The individual resilience of Israeli adults was positively linked to NR (Kimhi, 2016 ).

Community resilience refers to the reciprocal relationship between individuals and their immediate community, wherein individuals have the capacity to seek help from the community while the community has the capacity to extend help towards individuals (Kimhi & Eshel, 2019 ; Marciano et al., 2019 ). Higher community resilience translates to higher levels of community strength, which controls stress indicators; while lower community resilience may lead to community vulnerability, thus leading to recovery setbacks after adversities. Consistent in studies involving Israeli adults (Eshel & Kimhi, 2016a , 2016b , 2016c ; Kimhi et al., 2019 , 2013 , 2018 ) and students from Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, and Greece; community resilience is significant and positively associated with NR at a generally moderate level.

2. RESEARCH AIMS AND HYPOTHESES

To the best of our knowledge, no research has been conducted on examining NR in the Philippines. Considering the adversities of the coronavirus crisis, we pursued this study with the primary goal to inquire into the perceptions of NR in Filipinos during a pandemic. To achieve this goal, two aims were proposed. First, since there is no existing measure of NR validated for use with the Philippine population, we examined the psychometric properties of the Filipino adaptation of the National Resilience Scale (NRS‐Filipino). Second, we investigated a set of factors that can be associated with NR, including demographic and psychological variables.

In light of the foregoing literature and study aims, we posited these hypotheses:

• (1) NRS‐Filipino comprising of 14 items adapted from the original NRAS (Kimhi et al., 2019 ) plus two new items specifically relevant to coronavirus crisis will demonstrate a valid and reliable multidimensional measure of NR.
• (2) In terms of demographic factors, Filipinos who are older, male, more religious, and inclined to political right‐wing attitudes will have greater NR. In addition, those residing in urban communities will have higher NR.
• (3) In terms of suppressing factors, participants with greater distress, sense of danger, perceived threat, and awareness of individual/s infected with coronavirus within the community will have lower NR.
• (4) In terms of promoting factors, participants with higher individual and community resilience will have greater NR.

3.1. Participants

The study involved a convenient sample of 401 adults residing in the Philippines. More than half of the participants were females (63.34%) and single (72.57%). Participants' ages ranged from 18 to 68 years ( M  = 30.09, SD  = 11.14), with a little more than half in the age bracket 22–29 years (55.36%). In terms of educational attainment, the majority of them earned bachelor's degrees (66.83%). More than a third of the participants indicated receiving higher than average income (39.40%). The demographic profile of the participants is presented in Table ​ Table1 1 .

Demographic profile of participants ( N  = 401)

3.2. Measures

3.2.1. national resilience.

NR was measured using a scale composed of 16 items, with 14 items adapted from the original 25‐item NRAS (Kimhi et al., 2019 ) and the remaining 2 items (see Items 11 and 12 in Table ​ Table1) 1 ) were developed by Shaul Kimhi and colleagues to increase content relevance of the scale in characterizing participants' perceptions of NR during coronavirus crisis. Items were adapted in Filipino and answered using Likert response options ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 5 ( strongly agree ), with a higher score indicating a greater level of NR. The psychometric properties of the NRS‐Filipino is reported in Section 4 .

3.2.2. Community resilience

The 10‐item Filipino version of the Conjoint Community Resilience Assessment Measure (CCRAM‐10) was utilized to assess participants' perceptions on the ability of a community to deal with a coronavirus crisis (Leykin, Lahad, Cohen, Goldberg, & Aharonson‐Daniel, 2013 ). Participants responded to each item (e.g., “ My community is prepared for an emergency including the Coronavirus crisis ”) on a 5‐point scale (1 =  strongly disagree to 5 =  strongly agree ), with a higher score indicating a greater level of community resilience. The structural validity of the CCRAM‐10 demonstrated a stable five‐factor model (i.e., leadership , collective efficacy , preparedness , place attachment , and social trust ) based on data from two adult samples in Israel (Leykin et al., 2013 ) and China (Cui & Han, 2019 ). CCRAM‐10 reliability was adequate for both factor and overall scores, ranging from α  = .66 to α  = .86 (Cui & Han, 2019 ). In this study, we used the overall score as an index of community resilience with a reliability α  = .90.

3.2.3. Individual resilience

The 10‐item Filipino version of the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD‐RISC 10) was used to measure a person's capacity to effectively recover from the coronavirus crisis (Campbell‐Sills & Stein, 2007 ; Connor & Davidson, 2003 ). Participants responded to each item (e.g., “ Able to adapt to change ”) on a 5‐point scale (0 =  not true at all times to 4 =  true nearly all of the time ), with a higher score indicating a greater level of individual resilience. Previous studies demonstrated a stable single‐factor structural validity of the CD‐RISC 10 based on adult samples in China (Wang, Shi, Zhang, & Zhang, 2010 ) and Spain (Blanco, Guisande, Sanchez, Otero, & Vazquez, 2019). CD‐RISC 10 reliability in previous studies was α  = .86 (Blanco, Guisande, Sánchez, Otero, & Vázquez, 2019 ). In the present study, we used the overall score as an index of individual resilience with a reliability α  = .90.

3.2.4. Distress

To measure distress in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, the present study used eight items of the Brief Symptoms Inventory (Derogatis & Savitz, 2000 ; Derogatis & Spencer, 1982 ) assessing anxiety (e.g., “ A feeling of tension ”) and depression (e.g., “ A feeling of worthlessness ”). Participants responded on a 5‐point scale (1 =  not at all to 5 =  to a very great extent ) with a higher score indicating greater distress symptoms. In the present study, we subjected the item scores to EFA that resulted in a single factor with an eigenvalue of 4.85 and 60.60% variance explained. All factor loadings were significant, ranging from 0.62 (Item 1) to 0.82 (Item 6). Thus, we used the combined score of depression and anxiety items as an index of distress with an overall reliability α  = .90.

3.2.5. Perceived threat

Based on the previous study of Kimhi and Eshel ( 2012 ), a Filipino translation of four items were specifically developed to measure the participants' perception of the extent of the threat that the current coronavirus crisis posed to four different domains including the economic, health, security, and political situations. Participants were asked to think of the current coronavirus crisis and were instructed to rate how threatening it was to each of the four domains by responding on a 5‐point scale (1 =  not threatening at all to 5 =  threatening to a very great extent ), with a high score indicating greater perceived threats. The present study used the overall score as an index of perceived threat with a reliability α  = .84.

3.2.6. Sense of danger

The 6‐item Filipino translated version of Sense of Danger Scale (Solomon & Prager, 1992 ) was adapted to measure the participants' perception of personal, familial, national, and global dangers brought about by the current coronavirus crisis (e.g., “ To what extent do you feel that your life is in danger due to the Coronavirus? ”). Participants were requested to describe their feelings in the past 2 weeks by rating each item using a 5‐point scale (1 =  not at all to 5 =  very much ). In previous studies, Sense of Danger Scale has demonstrated adequate reliability of α  = .75 based on Israeli adults (Eshel & Kimhi, 2016a , 2016b , 2016c ). In this study, we used the overall score as an index of sense of danger with a reliability α  = .85.

3.2.7. Demographic factors

Participants were asked to provide demographic information such as age (in years), gender, and place of residence that was later coded as either rural or urban based on the classification of the Philippine Statistics Authority ( 2010 ). In addition, awareness of person(s) with coronavirus illness, religiosity, and political attitude were also inquired. Awareness of person(s) with coronavirus illness was measured by one item ( To the best of your knowledge, is a person with a diagnosis of Coronavirus lives in your community? ) wherein participants indicated either a “yes” or “no” response. Religiosity was measured by asking participants to rate an item ( How would you define yourself regarding religiosity? ) on a scale ranging from 1 =  secular to 4 =  very religious . The political attitude was measured by a single item ( How would you describe yourself politically? ) with response options ranging from 1 =  strong right to 5 =  strong left .

3.3. Procedure

Before the survey was converted into an online format, items were translated from English to the Filipino language following the double‐translation and reconciliation procedure (International Test Commission, 2018 ). First, two bilingual experts who are Filipino native speakers independently translated the materials from English to Filipino. Second, a third bilingual expert who also is a native speaker of Filipino reviewed item by item the two translations and identified areas for corrections with consideration for linguistic, psychological, and cultural equivalence. Finally, the three experts discussed together and reconciled the corrections, and arrived at the final translated version of the survey.

An online survey questionnaire was completed by the participants after consent was obtained. The study was part of cross‐national research approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Tel Aviv University in Israel.

4.1. Exploratory factor analysis

Preliminary analyses indicated that NRS‐Filipino scores were normally distributed with skewness and kurtosis values consistently <|2|. Hence, EFA was conducted using the maximum likelihood estimator on Mplus 7 (Muthén and Muthén, 1998 –2012). The number of factors to retain was based on multiple criteria: (1) number of factors in the model can explain the data better than a model with one fewer factor, (2) model with one more factor does not improve appreciably in fit, and (3) solution was interpretable and most theoretically sensible (Fabrigar, Wegener, MacCallum, & Strahan, 1999 ; Floyd and Widaman, 1995 ). In addition, we were guided by a multiple factor structure of existing NR scales (Kimhi & Eshel, 2019 ; Kimhi et al., 2019 ) from which items of the NRS‐Filipino were adapted.

The goodness of data‐model fit was determined using a combination of absolute and incremental fit indices. Comparative fit index (CFI) and Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) values between 0.90 and 0.95, and root mean square error approximation (RMSEA) and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) below 0.08 are considered to suggest acceptable fit; while CFI and TLI values above 0.95 and RMSEA and SRMR values below 0.05 indicate a good model fit (Kline, 2016 ). In terms of retaining items, factor loading ≥0.40 on the relevant factor and <0.40 on all other factors is acceptable (Netemeyer, Bearden, & Sharma, 2003 ).

Initial EFA was conducted for one through four‐factor solutions and results indicated a good data‐model fit for a four‐factor solution: χ 2  = 160.29, df  = 52, p  < .001, CFI = 0.981, TLI = 0.963, SRMR = 0.016, RMSEA [90% confidence interval (CI)] = 0.063 [0.051–0.075]. All 16 items have loadings of 0.40 and above on relevant factors; however, Item 6 ( I am optimistic about the future of my country ) and Item 15 ( Trust in educational system ) cross‐loaded on two factors. EFA was rerun twice by dropping Items 6 and 15 separately from each solution. The solution with Item 15 eliminated yielded the best results that also demonstrated a good model fit for a four‐factor model: χ 2  = 130.65, df  = 51, p  < .001, CFI = 0.984, TLI = 0.967, SRMR = 0.014, RMSEA [90% CI] = 0.062 [0.049–0.079]. The final EFA solution consisted of 15 items with distinct and robust factor loadings ranging from 0.50 (Item 16) to 0.86 (Item 1), onto four theoretically sensible factors with a total explained variance of approximately 78%. Factor 1 is labeled as trust in national government (TNG) with five items (1, 2, 3, 11, and 12). Factor 2 is named as coping with a national crisis (CNC) with three items (4, 5, and 6). Factor 3 is labeled as SSJ with four items (7, 8, 9, and 10). Factor 4 is named as trust in public institutions (TPI) with three items (13, 14, and 16). Table ​ Table2 2 shows the item loadings and explained variance across factors.

Geomin rotated item loadings of the four‐factor EFA

Note: Bold values significant above .40.

Abbreviation: EFA, exploratory factor analysis.

4.2. Reliability and factor intercorrelations

Table ​ Table3 3 reports descriptive statistics of the NRS‐Filipino that indicated approximately normal distribution (skewness and kurtosis < |2|) for subscale and total scores. The reliability of the NRS‐Filipino scores was calculated using item loadings to estimate the latent construct ( H ) coefficient (Mueller & Hancock, 2008 ) and observed item scores to yield scale's Cronbach α coefficient. Latent construct reliability was observed to be strong for TNG ( H  = 0.91), adequate for SSJ ( H  = 0.76), and CNC ( H  = 0.70), and acceptable for TPI ( H  = 0.69). Similarly, α coefficient was strong for TNG ( α  = .95) and total NR ( α  = .95), and adequate for SSJ ( α  = .85), CNC ( α  = .83), and TPI ( α  = .76).

Descriptive statistics, reliability, and Pearson correlation of NRS‐Filipino subscales and total

Abbreviations: CNC, coping with national crisis; NR, national resilience; NRS‐Filipino, Filipino adapted National Resilience Scale; SSJ, solidarity and social justice; TNG, trust in national government; TPI, trust in public institutions.

Intercorrelations of NRS‐Filipino scales indicated strong relationships between subscales ranging from r  = .64 (CNC and SSJ) to r = .76 (TNG and TPI) suggesting overlapping yet distinct aspects of NR construct. In addition, strong relationships were observed between subscales and total NR scores ranging from r  = .85 (CNC) to r  = .93 (TNG).

4.3. Convergent validity

Convergent validity of NRS‐Filipino was established by correlating subscale and total scores with criterion variables using Pearson correlation. As shown in Table ​ Table4, 4 , series of bivariate correlations indicated that the NRS‐Filipino subscale and total scores were significantly and negatively correlated with a sense of danger, distress, and perceived threats. On the other hand, the NRS‐Filipino subscale and total scores were significantly and positively correlated with individual resilience and community resilience. The size of correlations ranged from low ( r  = .10 for SSJ and sense of danger) to strong ( r  = .67 for community resilience and total NR) across criterion variables.

Pearson correlation of NRS‐Filipino and criterion variables

4.4. Antecedents of NR

4.4.1. multiple regression.

Sequential multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine the relative contribution of demographic and psychological factors on total NR scores (i.e., subsequently referred to as NR). In Step 1 of the regression equation, demographic characteristics such as age, religiosity, and political attitudes were entered. In Step 2, suppressing factors that included sense of danger, distress, and perceived threat was added to the equation. Finally, in Step 3, promoting factors such as individual resilience and community resilience were added to the equation. To determine possible multicollinearity, indices of tolerance (TOL) and variance inflation factor (VIF) from the regression analysis were referred to. As a general guideline, TOL below 0.10 or VIF above 10 may indicate the presence of multicollinearity of variables (Oakland, Callueng, & Harris, 2012 ). No multicollinearity was noted in the analysis, with TOLs ranging from 0.71 to 0.99, and VIFs ranging from 1.01 to 1.42.

As summarized in Table ​ Table5, 5 , the results of the regression analysis indicated that in Step 1, the three demographic characteristics collectively explained approximately 18% (Δ R 2  = .18, Δ F (3, 383) = 29.28, p  ≤ .001) of the variance in NR. Participants who are older ( β  = .15, t  = 3.25, p  ≤ .001), more religious ( β  = .21, t  = 4.23, p  ≤ .001), and proclivity for right‐wing political attitudes ( β  = −.29, t  = −6.16, p  ≤ .001) tend to have higher NR. In Step 2, the addition of suppressing factors accounted for an approximately 8% increase in the variance of NR, (Δ R 2  = .08, ΔF (3, 383) = 13.57, p  ≤ .001). Greater levels of distress ( β  = −.22, t  = −4.62, p  ≤ .001) and perceived threat ( β  = −.17, t  = −3.49, p  ≤ .001) were associated with lower NR. On the other hand, sense of danger ( β  = .04, t  = −0.89, p ≥  .05) was not significantly associated with NR. In Step 3, the addition of promoting factors accounted for approximately 29% increase in the variance of NR (Δ R 2  = .29, Δ F (2, 381) = 12.76, p  ≤ .001). Higher levels of individual resilience ( β  = .16, t  = 3.96, p  ≤ .001) and community resilience ( β  = .52, t  = 13.82, p  ≤ .001) were associated with higher NR.

Sequential multiple regression on the influence of demographic and psychological factors on NR

Abbreviation: NR, national resilience.

Overall, the total variance of NR explained by the combined demographic and psychological factors was approximately 55%, with community resilience and political attitudes strongly associated with NR relative to other variables in the study.

4.4.2. Group differences

Influence of dichotomous categorical variables as possible determinants of NR was analyzed through series of one‐way analysis of variance to determine whether NR can be discriminated by participants' gender, type of residence, and awareness of a person infected by coronavirus within the community (see Table ​ Table6). 6 ). Mean difference by gender was not significant [ F (1, 391) = 2.83, p  ≥ .05, partial η 2  = 0.01], with males ( M  = 3.42, SD  = 0.94) and females ( M  = 3.57, SD  = 0.90) reporting similar NR scores. Mean difference by type of residence was significant [ F (1, 391) = 21.70, p ≤  .001, partial η 2  = 0.05] explaining approximately 5% of the variance in NR. Participants from rural communities ( M  = 3.73, SD  = 0.86) have higher NR than those from urban communities ( M  = 3.33, SD  = 0.86). Similarly, the mean difference by awareness of person(s) infected by coronavirus was significant [ F (1, 391) = 30.01, p ≤  .001, partial η 2  = 0.07] accounting for approximately 7% of the variance in NR. Participants who were aware of person(s) with coronavirus within their communities ( M  = 3.30, SD  = 0.83) have lower NR scores than those who were not aware ( M  = 3.77, SD  = 0.88).

Descriptive statistics and between‐groups ANOVA results of NR by demographic variables

Abbreviations: ANOVA, analysis of variance; NR, national resilience.

5. DISCUSSION

The overarching goal of the study was to probe into the perceptions of Filipino adults on NR during the coronavirus crisis. Two aims were set forth to achieve this goal: first was to assess the psychometric properties of the NRS‐Filipino, and second was to examine demographic and psychological factors as determinants of NR. Data were collected from 401 adults through an online survey conducted during the early phase of coronavirus pandemic in the Philippines.

5.1. Measurement of NR

Examination of the psychometric characteristics of the NRS‐Filipino entailed determining a theoretically sensible factor structure, calculating reliability at the latent and item levels, and establishing convergent validity. Findings from EFA yielded a four‐factor solution with a good model fit and strong factor loadings for 15 items that were nonoverlapping in factorability. The final items clearly clustered into four factors that were labeled as TNG, CNS, SSJ, and TPI. These factors are consistent with existing measures of NR, such as the NRAS (Kimhi et al., 2019 ) and NR‐13 (Kimhi & Eshel, 2019 ). This is not surprising as 14 of 16 original items of the NRS‐Filipino were adapted from the NRAS. The inclusion of two new items that reflects government's ability to protect the country during the coronavirus crisis in the Philippines is in accord to the idea that NR is not a static concept and requires contextual changes to capture meaningful perceptions of people on specific adversity (Canetti et al., 2014 ; Eshel & Kimhi, 2016a , 2016b , 2016c ; Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013 ). Both items clustered on the factor of TNG, which may be considered as a more valuable component in promoting and supporting NR amid the extreme adverse impact of coronavirus pandemic. The deletion of item, “ Trust in educational system ,” suggests that educational institutions may play a less essential role in helping a nation recover from the adverse effects of the coronavirus health crisis. Moreover, when ECQ/GCQ was implemented in the Philippines sometime in March 2020, the school year was about to end and thus, the educational system has not been much impacted by the early phase of the pandemic. It is possible that if the survey is conducted later or in the aftermath of the pandemic, the educational system can be a pivotal agency to collaborate with the national government in ensuring the safety and well‐being of children and youth.

Moreover, reliability analyses of the NRS‐Filipino subscale and total scores demonstrated strong internal consistency, which is consistent with the NRAS and NR‐13. In addition, the significant relations of the NRS‐Filipino subscale and total scores to relevant psychological measures supported convergent validity. Putting together, the results indicate that NRS‐Filipino could be utilized to assess NR of Filipinos during extreme adversities like the coronavirus crisis as well as contribute to closing the gap on the dearth of valid and practical tools to measure NR internationally. Hence, we confirmed Hypothesis 1 that NRS‐Filipino is a valid and reliable multidimensional measure of NR.

5.2. Antecedents of NR

Our findings partially supported Hypothesis 2 that demographic variables are significantly associated with NR. As expected, we found that Filipino adults who are older, more religious, and those holding more right‐wing political attitudes tend to have greater levels of perceived NR, confirming findings in earlier studies (Kimhi et al., 2017 , 2013 ). However, findings did not support the hypothesis that males and those living in urban areas have higher perceived NR than females and those residing in rural areas.

It appears that over time, the experiences of older individuals in facing adversities allow them to develop greater confidence in the capacity of the nation to recover in the midst of crisis (Eshel, Kimhi, Lahad, & Leykin, 2016 ). Moreover, believing in a higher being that has control over individual and world outcomes tend to promote the greater perception of NR echoes previous research (Kimhi et al., 2013 ; Marciano et al., 2019 ). Religion is a highly treasured value that Filipinos consider as a stronghold in times of personal or collective crisis (Austria, 2008 ). In a similar vein and confirming previous findings (Eshel et al., 2020 ; Kimhi & Eshel, 2019 ; Kimhi et al., 2019 , 2013 ), we found that individuals who held more right‐wing political views tend to perceive higher levels of NR. Although the present ruling political party in the Philippines can be characterized by nationalist and liberal ideas (Timberman, 2019 ), it is possible that the widespread adversity of the coronavirus pandemic may have changed political views of the Filipinos as leaning to a more conservative attitude, at least at the perceptual level. Hibbing, Smith, and Alford ( 2014 ) described individuals with conservative or right‐wing political orientation as more responsive and attuned to negative stimuli such as the threat of the current health pandemic, and there seems to be an emerging pattern on the influence of political ideology on coronavirus pandemic. Similar to the Philippines, a recent study by Dryhurst, Schneider, Kerr, and van der Linden ( 2020 ) indicated that people from the United Kingdom and the United States that lean more to conservative political orientation reported a lower risk of the coronavirus crisis.

Unlike earlier studies (e.g., Kimhi et al., 2013 ) reporting that people from urban areas tend to have a higher level of NR, the present study found that Filipino adults residing in rural communities reported higher levels of NR. One explanation is that rural communities in the Philippines have been characterized to give support to right‐wing political movements and policies (Borras, 2020 ). Hence resulting in a greater perception of NR, which can be attributed to right‐wing political attitudes as previously discussed. In addition, higher NR in participants from rural areas may have become more pronounced due to various provisions of relief assistance and resources from the government during the coronavirus crisis. On the other hand, we believe that compared with people in rural areas, individuals residing in urban areas may have greater exposure to mass media and online information, and thus, tend to be more critical of the responses and management of the national government during the coronavirus crisis. This, in turn, may have resulted in perceived lower levels of NR.

In contrast to previous research that reported lower levels of perceived NR in females mostly from Middle Eastern countries (Eshel et al., 2020 ), the current study found that Filipino females had similar levels of NR with males. This finding attests to the Philippines having the smallest gender gap in the Asian region notably in the areas of leadership, economic participation and opportunity, and professional and technical positions (Kosakowska‐Berezecka, Besta, Bosson, Jurek, & Zukauskiene, 2020 ; World Economic Forum, 2019 )—all of which can boost NR. Philippine culture also promotes gender equality and empowerment. For example, both men and women take active leadership roles in national and local institutions and egalitarian roles in solving the nation's problems including supporting the nation in facing and recovering during the coronavirus crisis.

Our findings partially supported Hypothesis 3 that suppressing factors negatively influence NR. Specifically, we found that participants who felt more distressed, higher perceived threat, and aware of person(s) infected with coronavirus within the community reported lower levels of perceived NR. However, sense of danger was not associated with NR. Earlier studies provided support that greater distress (Eshel et al., 2020 ; Kimhi et al., 2017 ) and perceived threat (Canetti et al., 2014 ) were associated with lower levels of perceived NR. Anxiety and distress are normal responses to such extreme circumstances of the coronavirus crisis. Our stress systems have evolved to respond in highly adaptive ways, thereby enabling humans to deal with these challenges (de Kloet, Sibug, Helmerhorst, & Schmidt, 2005 ). It is possible that participants' negative feelings may have been affected by their knowledge of someone with COVID‐19 illness within one's local community. Such emotional experience also can be explained by construal‐level of psychological distance (Trope & Liberman, 2010 ) such that, individuals who realize that the actual threats are present in their local community tend to perceive the risk as concrete and proximal compared to individuals who are not aware of COVID‐19 cases in one's community. Moreover, awareness of COVID‐19 cases in an immediate community may increase a person's anxiety and the risk of being infected since the coronavirus is mainly transmitted through close contact with a person infected by the virus. Coronavirus is highly contagious and there could be several ways (e.g., interaction in public places, not wearing a mask and other protective equipment, touching surfaces with a virus, and poor hand hygiene, among others) that an infected person in the neighborhood could very easily spread the virus in one's local community if safety measures such as social distancing, hygiene practices, and lockdown are not strictly implemented within the community. It is, therefore, not surprising that individuals with an awareness of an infected person in one's local community reported lower levels of NR.

However, the present findings did not find support for the hypothesis that sense of danger could have a significant negative influence on NR. One possible explanation is that the survey was conducted during the first 2–3 weeks of lockdown in the Philippines when there were only a few confirmed cases of coronavirus mostly in highly dense areas like Metro Manila; thus, sense of danger of the coronavirus crisis may not have been widespread and to a high degree. Findings may have been different if participants' sense of danger on the coronavirus crisis was assessed later during the lockdown with a possible surge of cases. For example, the study of Eshel and Kimhi ( 2016a , 2016b , 2016c ) showed that sense of danger was associated with NR following a disaster such as a missile attack.

Finally, our findings confirmed Hypothesis 4 that promoting factors such as individual and community resilience positively influence NR; that is, individuals who reported higher levels of individual and community resilience showed greater levels of perceived NR. This finding is consistent with earlier studies indicating that people who have a greater capacity to bounce back from adversity and perceive the community with capacities for collective action, collaboration, and empowerment are more likely to trust their national leaders and government institutions to resolve crises and maintain stability in the country (Eshel et al., 2020 ; Kimhi & Eshel, 2019 ; Kimhi et al., 2019 ).

Overall, the present study found several demographic and psychological factors as antecedents of NR during the coronavirus crisis in the Philippines, which were consistent with findings from previous research in other countries (Eshel et al., 2020 ; Kimhi et al., 2019 , 2018 ). More importantly, we highlight that community resilience and political attitudes are the strongest predictors of NR in the Philippines. Since NR may be viewed as a collection of resilient individuals and communities, it is not surprising that Filipinos who perceive their local community as resilient would believe that the Philippine society, in general, may be capable to effectively withstand the coronavirus crisis. It is possible that since the response of one's local community during the coronavirus crisis (e.g., strict implementation of lockdown by local authorities, distribution of relief goods, and cash) has been relatively quick and directly observable, people tend to generalize these as indicators of effective management at the national level. Likewise, right‐wing political attitude as a significant antecedent of NR explains the importance of trust in the political system during an intractable crisis such as the coronavirus pandemic.

5.3. Limitations and future research

This is the first known study of NR in a Filipino sample and in the context of a pandemic. Although the findings regarding the measurement and antecedents of NR are promising, methodological limitations of the study are acknowledged. First, participants were largely from a limited geographical area and were derived from a convenience sample of adults, findings may not be generalizable to the population studied. To address this shortcoming, we suggest that future research can replicate our findings with larger and more diverse samples, including those from other regions and socioeconomic groups. Second, the survey was conducted during the early phase of the coronavirus pandemic and that participants' perceptions on NR may differ if data were obtained after the crisis. To remedy this limitation, we suggest that additional research can be conducted to investigate Filipinos' perceptions of NR after the pandemic. Finally, the factor structure and psychometric properties of the NRS‐Filipino was initially examined based on data from one group of adults and collected at a single point of time. Additional research is recommended to determine the stability and generalization of the structural validity and technical adequacy of the NRS‐Filipino across samples and times.

PEER REVIEW

The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons.com/publon/10.1002/jcop.22438

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Okay, can we stop romanticizing Filipino resilience?

“Basta Pinoy, kaya yan!” a talking head exclaims from a broken television hammered helplessly by a family this morning, just to make it work again. The same morning, they tried to keep their house together as floods filled their living room (and kitchen and bathroom). The only breadwinner was kicked out of their job recently, and they couldn’t afford another big repair. So what if it’s typhoon signal #3? They surely can do it. 

Though I wrote it as fiction, it wouldn’t hurt to accept that this is a possible scenario. Because since Juan De La Cruz knows when, “resilient” has become the favorite adjective we throw at each other. And with it, everything should be achievable. Juan, how does it feel to be dismissed and sensationalized at the same time?

Constantly whipping out the resilience card is not only lazy but also dangerous. Whether in narratives about calamities or the present pandemic, using this toxic mindset is anything but progressive. Recognizing a painful situation is one thing, but putting sugar, spice and everything nice on it is another. 

In case you need a reminder, here are some possible sequels to our narratives on romanticization (a.k.a. situations we’re probably already in but too desensitized to incompetence to even feel it.) 

It normalizes suffering

Just today, ABS-CBN News reported that a nurse, who was initially waiting for her shuttle to work, stopped by to assist a barangay rescue team in delivering a baby of a homeless woman in Makati City. It’s a commendable deed by the nurse, heroic of her even—but romanticization starts when that’s everything we want to see. The better way to acknowledge situations like this is finding out what caused it: Why didn’t the mother have access to proper healthcare? A shelter? If the nurse hadn’t attended to her, what could have happened?

The better way to acknowledge situations like this is finding out what caused it.

When online classes began, education became more of a privilege than ever. One proof was a 12-year-old boy who was seen enrolling himself in a pisonet shop. “Nahihirapan siya kasi hindi niya maintindihan ‘yung mga nababasa niya. And siya lang mag-isa instead na kasama ‘yung parents niya,” Peter Salire De Guzman, the person who got to meet the boy, said in an interview with “24 Oras.” 

While this news prompted people to donate, others reduced the scene to something “normal”—it’s a learning curve, it happens, and with the boy’s persistence to study, more opportunities will surely come his way in the future. Your privilege shows, but go off, I guess.

It dismisses the hardships of others

Former presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo commuting to work for a day wasn’t a fever dream. It really happened in October last year in response to the public’s plea during what they described as a mass transport crisis. 

After riding four jeepneys and a motorcycle (and taking a different route because of traffic), Panelo left an advice for commuters: “Ang punto ko lang dun, we are very creative people . When we’re confronted with a situation na hostile, we adjust. ‘Yan ang pagka-malikhain ng Pilipino,” he said in an interview, while on his third jeepney ride to the Malacañang. Weird flex, not okay.

In this case, even though “resilience” is masked as “creativity,” it bears the same danger: Trivializing people’s daily suffering as something solvable by a change in mindset.

In this case, even though “resilience” is masked as “creativity,” it bears the same danger: Trivializing people’s daily suffering as something solvable by a change in mindset. If it were that easy, I’m sure the working class could have overcome the situation. And besides, how is one day of commuting enough to gauge the situation of those who do it every day—those who don’t see commuting as an experiment? 

It leaves no responsibility to the officials to do better

Recently, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque highlighted Filipinos’ resilience after finding out the latest SWS survey: 45.5 percent or 27.3 million Filipino adults are jobless right now. 

“ I’m still surprised at our resilience , at 45 percent pa lang po ang nawawalan ng trabaho. It could have been worse kasi nga po complete lockdown ang nangyayari sa atin ,” he said. 

Romanticizing resilience breeds toxic positivity—a one-way ticket to escape incompetence. Instead of accepting what we see, let’s consider what needs to be changed.

Before we paint something as “inspiring,” let’s think if someone is suffering at the expense of our amazement.

Being accustomed to this mindset allows mediocre individuals in powerful positions. We resort to “lesser evils” because we think we don’t deserve better.

Way back pre-pandemic , stories of resilience have always been popular during thunderstorm season. Before we know it, photos of ordinary people fist-fighting with sickness (and death) in flooded areas—just to make ends meet—dominate our feed. We often compliment how heroic their deeds are, but did we bother calling for better services? There are things we don’t deserve in the first place.

Art by Jan Cardasto

• filipino resilience
• romanticizing filipino resilience
• toxic positivity

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This photographer's images of Filipino resilience are winning acclaim in Europe

We are often told, particularly in these trying, virus-ridden times of our resilience of spirit. It is almost a jarring point of pride—how supposedly Filipinos can retain a neighborly smile even in the face of brutal calamity—considering the frequency of our run-ins with disaster.

Think of it as you will, but that so many derive an uplift from seeing our good humor withstand tragedy is a truth that persists.

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One would be hard-pressed to produce a better encapsulation of this resilience than Per-Andre Hoffmann’s “It’s more fun in the Philippines” photograph. The photo, which bagged first prize in the Lifestyle category at the 2019 PR-Bild Awards, depicts a boy heedlessly leaping from a springboard into a bay all while an active Mayon Volcano looms largely in the backdrop.

The photographer, who has been published in TIME and National Geographic , among other publications, says the image communicates a message about “living life and love to the fullest.” Hoffmann, who is based now in Makati, adds that, due largely to Europeans’ unfamiliarity with volcanoes (there are but a few not located in Italy or Iceland), they are under the general impression that a volcano outbreak would strike a Hollywood-grade panic among the public.

In Hoffman's award-winning photo, we see the opposite. Its an image of children enjoying life and unimpressed with the threat of Mayon. "There’s the fisherman idly paddling by, going about his work as usual. And there’s the people on the Esplanade, casually strolling, holding hands,” says the photographer, who was raised in Brazil and Norway, describing the picture.

As arresting as the image is, the work of capturing it wasn't exactly a case of lightning in a bottle.

Hoffmann admits he had to observe and take numerous shots. “None was absolutely perfect and the light was fading,” he adds. “Without changing the original message, I requested one of the boys to jump in a certain way. After several attempts, the message was preserved and the perfect PR-shot was created. I left the kids with smiles on their faces and knew this image would fuel the imagination and touch the soul of people in the West.”

In addition to “It’s More Fun in the Philippines,” Hoffmann had another winner in his piece entitled “Ten Generations Under One Roof,” which bagged third prize in the Visual Stories and Campaigns category. It depicts two Filipinos sitting in a nipa hut containing bones of their ancestors.

It was the Department of Tourism (DOT) who submitted Hoffman's works to the PR-Bild Awards which the German press agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) has been running since 2006. The awards honor achievements in public relations photography and visual communications.

Settling in the PH

So what drew Hoffman to this country? 

In 1993, the DOT asked him—at that point he was already an established photojournalist in Germany—to promote the Philippines. (Germany was the world’s biggest outbound tourism market then.) In turn, his work featuring the country saw publication in renowned magazines and newspapers, which prompted the DOT to invite him back on multiple occasions.

During this time, Hoffmann would spend several months in a year working in the Philippines. Shortly thereafter, with the advent of the internet, the location of a “base” had become irrelevant to him. “After having been to over one hundred countries,” he says, “I chose my overall favorite place—the Philippines.” The photographer, who is unmarried, has since become an adoptive father to a girl from Bicol.

It should now require little imagination to see why Hoffmann, who studied visual communications and media design, should be so enamored with our islands. He describes the country as “an absolutely magical archipelago with enormous diversity, stunning scenery and natural beauty, diverse cultures and traditions, awesome fiestas and rituals…[all] waiting to be told.”

Electing to state the obvious, he adds: “The Philippines is a photographer's dream.”

Man behind the image

While Hoffmann took up photography “professionally” as a university man, he believes making images was in his DNA all along. “I found a photo of myself “shooting” with a self-made camera dummy when I was six or seven," he recalls. 

Eventually, in university, he began offering both writing and photography of his global travels to different publications. With a dogged determination, he slowly but regularly got work published, gaining national recognition in the process.

He recalls how his first major recognition was “boosted” by stories he had published from war zones, particularly his work capturing the civil war in Sudan. An editor in GEO Magazine , in attesting to Hoffmann’s work ethic, says he “risks life and limb for a good shot.”

To see some of Hoffman's works, click on the slideshow:

"Ifugao hut with boy and lola," 2019 Third Prize

"Tinguian boar hunter with dog," 2019 shortlisted

"Ethnic mother with daughter," 2019 shortlisted

"Filipino boy with banana gun," 2019 shortlisted

"Carabao and egret," 2018 First Prize

"Jeepney stop in rain," 2019 shortlisted

"Ifugao dance"

"Mayon," 2019 First Prize

"Fidel Castro"

I prefer Hoffmann’s own, more cogent take: “Basically, he meant I was a young nutcase.”

In earnest, Hoffmann is simply of the belief that he has to see everything from a different lens. In his work, he wants nothing short of “clean compositions, easy-to-grasp messages, exquisite and unusual light, and a touch of my personal twist.”

Asked about what subjects might figure in his work in the future, Hoffmann chooses to illuminate what furthers along his artistic evolution. “[It] is not expressed in what I shoot, but how,” he explains. “My philosophy is always the attempt to see things differently, pursue new aesthetics, messages, and techniques.”

Not only is this a personal ambition, adds Hoffmmann. “It is a professional necessity.”

Portraits of Hoffman by Patrick Mateo

What Makes Filipino Essays Unique and Compelling?

Filipino essays, a blend of rich history, diverse culture, and heartfelt emotion, stand out in the world of literature. But what exactly sets them apart? Let’s dive into the essence of Filipino essays, drawing insights from both the Quora discussion on Filipino authors and additional online resources.

The Heart and Soul of Filipino Essays

Filipino essays often reflect the country’s complex history and the resilience of its people. From the poignant works of Jose Rizal, which ignited a revolution, to the contemporary pieces that explore everyday life in the Philippines, these essays are more than just written words; they are the soul of the Filipino experience.

Kathang Pinoy , a notable blog, highlights essays like Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil’s “My Husband’s Roommate” and Carlos P. Romulo’s “I Am A Filipino.” These works exemplify the depth and diversity of Filipino writing, showcasing personal narratives that resonate with readers globally.

The Influence of Culture and History

Filipino essays are deeply rooted in the nation’s culture and history. For instance, Carlos Bulosan , an influential Filipino writer, depicted the struggles and aspirations of the Filipino diaspora in America. His works, born from personal experiences, offer a window into the lives of Filipinos grappling with identity and belonging in a foreign land.

Similarly, cultural anthropologist Niels Mulder provides a unique perspective on Filipino life through his collection of essays. He compares Filipino culture with that of Javanese and Thai, using everyday life examples to illustrate the distinct Filipino identity.

The Contemporary Filipino Essay

The evolution of Filipino essays reflects the changing times and the dynamic nature of Filipino society. A notable contribution to this genre is the first collection of personal essays in Kinaray-a, a language from Panay Island. This work, as discussed on ResearchGate , represents the linguistic and cultural diversity within the Philippines, offering fresh perspectives and narratives.

Engaging with the Filipino Essay

As a reader, engaging with Filipino essays means immersing oneself in a world of rich storytelling, profound insights, and emotional depth. These essays are not just about the Filipino experience; they are universal in their themes of struggle, resilience, and hope.

To truly appreciate the beauty of Filipino essays, one must look beyond the words and understand the context from which they arise. It’s about connecting with the authors’ experiences, empathizing with their struggles, and celebrating their triumphs.

Filipino essays are a testament to the country’s rich literary heritage. They are a mirror reflecting the soul of the Filipino people, their history, culture, and aspirations. As we explore these works, we not only gain insight into the Filipino experience but also find universal themes that resonate with us all. The uniqueness and compelling nature of Filipino essays lie in their ability to connect deeply with readers, regardless of their background.

Related Questions and Answers on “Filipino essays”:

• Question: What are some iconic essays by Filipino authors? Answer: Some iconic Filipino essays include Jose Rizal’s “The Philippines A Century Hence,” Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil’s “My Husband’s Roommate,” and Carlos P. Romulo’s “I Am A Filipino.”
• Question: How has Filipino essay writing evolved over the years? Answer: Filipino essay writing has evolved to encompass a broader range of topics and perspectives, reflecting the changing society and cultural dynamics.
• Question: Who are some emerging Filipino essayists to watch out for? Answer: Keep an eye on contemporary Filipino essayists like F. Sionil Jose, Lualhati Bautista, and Gina Apostol, whose works continue to make waves in the literary world.

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• Coronavirus Disease 2019

Filipino Responses to COVID-19

Research documents filipino panic responses to the global pandemic..

Posted April 30, 2020 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina

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By Georgina Fairbrother

A recent study explored panic responses to COVID-19 in the Philippines. COVID-19 has been declared a global pandemic and has caused mass lockdowns and closures across the globe. An angle relatively unexplored amidst this global pandemic is the impact of COVID-19 on mental health. The survey conducted was a mixed-method study that gathered qualitative and quantitative data in order to better explore the different dimensions of panic responses.

The survey was conducted through convenience sampling by online forms due to government-mandated limitations of social contact and urgency. The online survey ran for three days and gathered 538 responses. The average age of a survey participant was 23.82, with participants ranging in ages from 13-67. 47% of those who completed the survey were working, 45.4% were students and 7.6% were not working. Of those who completed the survey, 1.3% had witnessed direct exposure to a COVID-19 patient, while 26% had witnessed exposure within their community, and 72.7% had not been exposed.

For purposes of the survey, the Health Anxiety Inventory (HAI) Short Week was adapted in order to test illness anxiety on COVID-19 amongst Filipinos. The HAI had four main sections used in this survey: 1) Symptoms of health anxiety (hypochondriasis), 2) Attitudes towards how awful it would be to develop COVID-19, 3) Avoidance, and 4) Reassurance. Responses to questions answered within these areas were scored on a 0-3 basis, compromising the quantitative portion of the study. To complete the qualitative section of the survey three open-ended questions were used. The open-ended questions used for qualitative purposes in this survey were:

“1. What came to your mind when you knew the existence of COVID-19? 2. How do you feel when you know the existence of COVID-19? 3. What actions have you done with the knowledge of existence of COVID-19?”

Upon completion of the survey, researchers were able to analyze data in regard to five different areas. First, researchers discovered that it was very evident that respondents were experiencing moderate illness anxiety in all four aspects listed by HAI. Secondly, by comparing locations, researchers also discovered that respondents residing in Metro Manilla exhibited less avoidance behavior compared to respondents residing outside Metro Manilla. While there is no definitive reason for this result, speculation looms around education , awareness, and proximity to COVID-19 cases. Thirdly, researchers looked at occupation, but determined illness anxiety was present regardless of occupation. Fourthly, researchers determined that respondents who had been in direct contact with those having COVID-19 were more likely to exhibit symptoms of hypochondriasis compared to respondents who had not witnessed or contacted anyone with COVID-19.

The fifth area that researchers explored upon completion of this survey was that of feeling, thinking, and behavior in response to COVID-19. Nineteen different themes were ranked by 100 experts based on their positivity and negativity. The themes included items such as the following: Health Consciousness, Optimism , Cautiousness, Protection, Compliance, Composure, Information Dissemination, Worry on self/family/others, Relating to Past Pandemics, Anxiety, Government Blaming, Shock, Transmission of Virus, Fear, Sadness, Paranoia , Nihilism, Annihilation, and Indifference. Upon completion of the survey, the highest-scoring themes amongst respondents included Fear, Social Distancing, Health Consciousness, and Information Dissemination. Meanwhile, the lowest-scoring themes included Indifference and Nihilism.

Overall, COVID-19 has become a global pandemic that is continuing to move and spread across the world. In the aftermath of this pandemic, it will be interesting to compare the panic responses of different countries. The Philippines approaches this study from a more socially collectivist perspective. With that being said, it was reported that the Philippines leaned towards more individualistic tendencies in times of fear. Another area to look deeper into would include how panic responses change from the initial shock of COVID-19 to lockdown phases to re-emergence phases.

Georgina Fairbrother is a current master’s student in the Humanitarian and Disaster Leadership program at Wheaton College. Prior to her master’s degree, she received a bachelor’s degree in Global Security and Intelligence studies from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Nicomedes, C. J., & Avila, R. (2020). An Analysis on the Panic of Filipinos During COVID-19 Pandemic in the Philippines. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.17355.54565

Jamie Aten , Ph.D. , is the founder and executive director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College.

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Essay on Proud Of Being A Filipino

Students are often asked to write an essay on Proud Of Being A Filipino in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Proud Of Being A Filipino

Introduction.

Being a Filipino is a matter of pride. We are known for our warm hospitality, rich culture, and resilience. These traits make us unique and distinguish us from the rest of the world.

Rich Culture

Filipinos have a rich culture, influenced by various civilizations. Our traditional music, dance, and art reflect our diverse history. We celebrate festivals with joy and enthusiasm, showcasing our vibrant traditions.

Filipinos are known for their resilience. Despite facing natural disasters and challenges, we rise again with a smile. Our spirit of ‘Bayanihan’, or community cooperation, helps us overcome difficulties together.

Warm Hospitality

Our hospitality is world-renowned. We welcome guests with open hearts, treating them like family. This trait reflects our caring and loving nature.

Being a Filipino is a privilege. Our rich culture, resilience, and warm hospitality make us stand out. These are reasons enough to be proud of being a Filipino.

250 Words Essay on Proud Of Being A Filipino

Filipinos are known for their vibrant culture, rich history, and strong values. Being a Filipino, I am proud of my heritage and the unique qualities that set us apart from the rest of the world.

Filipino Culture

Our culture is a colorful mix of influences from the East and West. We have our own music, dance, art, and food that are unique to us. We celebrate fiestas with joy, showcasing our love for life and community. Our traditions and customs are a true reflection of our strong spirit and resilience.

Rich History

The history of the Philippines is a testament to our strength and resilience. From our ancestors who fought bravely for our independence to the modern-day heroes who strive for progress, every Filipino has a story of courage and determination. This rich history makes me proud to be a Filipino.

Filipino Values

Being Filipino means embracing our core values. We are known for our “Bayanihan” spirit, which means helping each other in times of need. We value family above all, and we are known for our respect towards elders. Our sense of “kapwa,” or shared humanity, is a value that binds us together.

Being a Filipino is not just about the place of birth, it’s also about being part of a community with a unique culture, rich history, and strong values. It’s about being part of a nation that values unity, respect, and resilience. I am proud to be a Filipino because of these qualities that define us as a people.

500 Words Essay on Proud Of Being A Filipino

Feeling proud of one’s heritage is a wonderful thing. I am a Filipino and I am very proud of it. The Philippines, my homeland, is a country rich in culture, history, and natural beauty. There are many reasons why I am proud to be a Filipino, and in this essay, we will explore some of them.

Rich History and Culture

The Philippines has a rich history and culture. Our ancestors fought bravely for our freedom. Their courage and love for our homeland are inspiring. We have a unique culture that is a mix of native traditions and influences from other countries. Our music, dance, art, and food reflect our rich cultural heritage. We celebrate many colorful festivals throughout the year. These celebrations showcase our traditions and bring us closer as a community.

Beautiful Natural Resources

Our country is blessed with stunning natural beauty. We have beautiful beaches, mountains, forests, and rivers. Our biodiversity is one of the richest in the world. We have unique plants and animals that are not found anywhere else. These natural resources are a source of pride for us Filipinos.

Friendly and Hospitable People

Filipinos are known for being friendly and hospitable. We treat our guests with respect and kindness. We go out of our way to make them feel welcome. This warmth and hospitality make us proud to be Filipinos.

Resilience in the Face of Challenges

Filipinos are resilient people. We face many challenges, such as natural disasters and economic difficulties. But we always find a way to overcome these challenges. We help each other and stay strong together. This resilience is a testament to our spirit as Filipinos.

Love for Family and Community

Family and community are very important to us Filipinos. We value our relationships with our family members and neighbors. We support each other in times of need. This strong sense of community and family ties makes us proud to be Filipinos.

Being a Filipino is something to be proud of. Our rich history and culture, beautiful natural resources, friendly and hospitable people, resilience in the face of challenges, and love for family and community are just some of the reasons why I am proud to be a Filipino. I am grateful for these blessings and I celebrate them with joy and pride.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Recovering Better For A Sustainable And Equitable World
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Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

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I am very thankful for this aspiring youths

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Understanding Childhood Trauma Can Help Us Be More Resilient

I n 2022, the World Health Organization estimated that 1 billion children were maltreated each year around the globe. Maltreatment such as neglect and abuse are types of adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs . But they often say little about how children respond, which can either be traumatic or resilient. Now, revolutionary new findings in the sciences help us understand how different dimensions of adversity can leave different signatures of trauma and how we can use this knowledge to help children recover and build resilience against future harms.

Consider Ethan and Kevin (their names are pseudonyms to protect their privacy), two children that I worked with as an educator and researcher of trauma in schools. Ethan was abandoned by his mother at birth and placed in an orphanage in Eastern Europe, his home for the next six years. He was deprived of the fundamental needs of safety, nutrition, and human contact. He had books, but there was no one to read to him. He had caretakers, but they rarely comforted him when he was upset.

Kevin, on the other hand, witnessed his father physically and emotionally abusing his mother for the first ten years of his life. Around his sixth birthday, Kevin directly experienced his father's abuse. For entertainment, and to teach him that life is tough, Dad put Kevin and his older sister Joani into the outdoor dog cage, threw food in, and forced them to compete for their nightly dinner. If they refused, he beat them until they entered the dinner arena.

Ethan and Kevin were both traumatized by their maltreatment, but that doesn't capture what was happening inside of them. Ethan had no motivation, was numb to rewards, struggled with school and couldn't maintain social relationships. Kevin was an emotional maelstrom, frightened, hypervigilant, running away from unfamiliar men and hurting himself when he heard noises. Ethan and Kevin presented different traumatic responses or “signatures”—unique identifiers of the mental distortions created by their adverse experiences. Identifying these traumatic signatures enables caretakers, teachers, doctors, and counselors to sculpt a path to resilience that is specific to the child's harms and needs and gives them the best hope for recovery, whether in childhood or later in life.

Read More: How Traumatized Children See the World, According to Their Drawings

The idea of traumatic signatures is only a few years old , but the scientific evidence leading to it is not. We have known for decades that different environmental experiences shape development, including how and when our emotions, thoughts, and actions mature. When the environment is harsh and unpredictable, threatening survival, the timing of development tends to speed up, leading to individuals who mature quickly—recognizing and responding appropriately to danger as youngsters. In contrast, when the environment is impoverished, with individuals deprived of essential experiences and resources, development tends to slow down, resulting in delays in the attainment of independence, dedicated social roles, and sexual behavior.

Ethan and Kevin, like millions of other children, experienced two of the core types of ACEs — deprivation and abuse, respectively — during different time periods of development. These differences in experience shaped their traumatic signatures.

Deprivation is typified by a delay in the development of the brain’s executive functions —attention, short-term working memory, self-regulation, and planning. The executive functions form the bedrock to all learning and decision-making, but they are also essential in supporting more specialized cognitive functions such as language, social thinking, math, music, and morality. Children with weak executive functions fare poorly in school, and are socially and physically unhealthy. Such was Ethan’s traumatic response.

Abuse is characterized by warp speed development of a nervous system that detects threats, accompanied by hypervigilance, emotional turbulence, and out of control behavior. The root cause is a hyperactive amygdala, a brain region that plays an essential role in emotional processing, and its connection to a frontal lobe region that controls our feelings, thoughts, and actions. This constellation of changes to the nervous system leaves the child in a heightened state of fear, either fleeing or fighting to cope with an unsafe world . Such was Kevin's traumatic response.

The signatures penned by these types of adversity are further modified by their timing. In studies of orphans living in austere, institutionalized settings — such as the orphanage that Ethan grew up in—those deprived of essential experiences for more than the first few years of life showed deficits in executive functioning, social relationships, and attachment. In contrast, orphans who were placed in foster care by their second birthday, largely recovered from their deprivation in the years that followed. Children who are abused earlier in life , typically before puberty—such as Kevin—show greater emotional dysregulation, weaker control over their thoughts and actions, and more rapid biological aging.

Read More: How Childhood Trauma Can Cause Premature Aging

Different types of adversity, including different combinations, pen different signatures. But ultimately, they also define how we help children recover and sculpt their resilience. Each child's genetic architecture positions them somewhere on a spectrum of responses to adversity that runs from vulnerable to resilient . Those who land on the resilient end are handed greater immunity to adversity because of stronger executive functions that tamp down emotions and maintain focused attention. Those who land on the vulnerable end are handed greater sensitivity to adversity, dominated by emotional turbulence and inflamed autoimmune systems that heighten illness . Environmental experiences can displace individuals onto different sections of this spectrum, either enhancing their resilience or magnifying their vulnerability.

At age six, Ethan's tenure of deprivation ended and a rich life of loving care started with Julie, his adoring adoptive mother. At age 10, Kevin's father was incarcerated and his parents divorced, thereby ending his tenure of exposure to abuse and starting a more promising life with his mother Kate who desperately tried to provide for him despite her own struggles with mental health. Ethan and Kevin were both on Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) that documented their disabilities and guided the work carried out in their schools. Both of their schools were trauma-informed, meaning that they adhered to the 4Rs : r ealizing that traumatic experiences are common, r ecognizing that traumatic experiences are associated with specific symptoms or signatures, r esponding to a child's trauma by integrating knowledge of what happened with what can be done to help, and r esisting re-traumatizing both students and staff. Both schools were also aware of Ethan's and Kevin's life experiences and recognized that they would require different approaches for aiding recovery and building resilience.

Ethan, like other children who have been deprived of essential experiences in the early years of their lives, required an approach that reassured him of receiving unwavering, predictable care while providing strategies to enhance his ability to learn and develop healthy relationships. His care included access to a visual schedule that showed the timing of activities, including when meals and snacks were provided. Predictable access to meals and snacks, both at home and in school, rapidly helped reduce his obsession and hoarding of food. The unwavering support provided by Julie as well as the school staff, eventually melted away Ethan's distrust of others, enabling healthy relationships to grow. The visual schedule helped reduce the load on his short- term working memory, while helping him prepare and plan for transitions between activities. Stubbornly resistant to change, however, was Ethan’s capacity to associate or link actions with consequences. For Ethan, as for other children who have been severely deprived of experiences early in life, associative learning was heavily compromised, awaiting the addition of new tools to the trauma-informed toolkit.

Kevin’s signature of abuse was initially treated by a psychiatrist with Tenex—a medication for aggression, impulsivity, and hyperactivity—along with cognitive behavioral therapy to help him find alternative ways of thinking about and coping with his trauma. His teachers intervened further, providing him with frequent breaks to manage his frustration and burn off some energy. These approaches reduced Kevin’s outbursts and violent attacks on peers and staff, but he was still highly impulsive and fidgety. Kevin’s team decided to start him on neurofeedback , a method that enabled him to consciously modify the pattern of brain activation, shifting toward greater calm, focus, and control over his emotions. Eventually, Kevin developed good friends, healthy relationships with teachers, and an after-school job where he was learning to be a car mechanic. He also learned to trust other men, including me, one of his teachers, who deeply cared about him and cheered on his successes.

Ethan and Kevin walked off their landscapes of harm and onto paths of hope, equipped with skills to manage future adversity. Both lucked out with relatively resilient genetic architectures that were joined by nurturing environments, ones filled with people who cared for them. Many other children, perhaps the majority of the 1 billion who are maltreated each year, are less fortunate, more vulnerable by nature and nurture. While it is highly unlikely that we will ever flatten the landscape of harm, we can do far more to nurture recovery and build resilience if we recognize how traumatic signatures unfold—and how to create action plans to work through them.

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