Human resilience in a degrading environment: A case study in China

Psychological aspects of environmental degradation were studied among 753 Chinese farmers. A good fit was found for a structural equation model postulating a relationship between various input variables (i.e. environmental degradation, socio‐economic status, education, coping, and locus of control), a latent variable (called resilience), and three output variables (i.e. stress, marginalization, and depression). Higher scores on internal locus of control, problem solving, socioeconomic status, and modernity and lower scores on environmental degradation, avoidance, and support seeking were associated with more resilience.