Personal resilience and coping abilities of extension agentspost-hurricane

摘要

Purpose: While Extension agents should be ready to deal withrecovery efforts, emotional stress can hinder their ability torespond effectively. This study sought to provide overall insightsinto Florida’s Extension agents’ ability to engage in post-hurricaneresponse.Design/Methodology/Approach: Resilience and coping literaturefacilitated a researcher-developed conceptual framework. A basicqualitative design explored hurricane experiences with nine UF/IFAS Extension agents through face-to-face and telephone interviews.Findings: Participants likely had medium to high levels of personalresilience and varying levels of coping abilities. County differences,non-localized stressors, disaster training, and personal experiencelikely negatively affected agents’ coping abilities.Practical Implications: There is scope to improve overall personalresilience by strengthening individual levels of hardiness andcoping abilities through disaster training and development.Theoretical Implications: The conceptual framework worked well toidentify levels of personal resilience and coping abilities of agents.However, it should be tailored to include external factors likelyaffecting personal resilience by context of country and disaster.Originality/Value: This research is the first to develop a resilienceconceptual framework to describe UF/IFAS Extension agents’ levelof engagement in hurricane response. Strengthening Extension’spost-hurricane response strategies can help ensure vibrant andresilient communities for current and future generations.