Role of Values and Resilience in Well-Being among Individuals Affected by the Fukushima Disaster

Individuals affected by the Fukushima disaster were found to experience a decline in well-being in accordance with their resilience. Nevertheless, major stressors due to the disaster could clarify and change values in life that the affected individuals had previously endorsed, leading to the promotion of well-being. In this study, we investigated whether values and resilience were associated with well-being among individuals affected by the Fukushima disaster. Questionnaires were distributed randomly to 2,000 individuals aged between 20 and 79 years who lived in municipalities where evacuation orders were lifted in January 2018, and responses were obtained from 826 individuals. We then distributed the follow-up questionnaires in December 2018, obtaining 291 valid responses. Well-being was measured using five subscales: emotion (positive and negative-free emotion), judgments (life satisfaction and general happiness), and psychological well-being (positive characteristics and positive functioning). Resilience and commitment to values were assessed using the Bidimensional Resilience Scale and Personal Values Questionnaire II, respectively. We classified the participants into six clusters according to the type of values they endorsed. We found that there was a positive association between current commitment to values and positive emotion, positive characteristics, and positive functioning, regardless of the changes in commitment to values after the disaster. In addition, innate resilience and endorsing social roles and/or recreation/leisure/sport values were associated with higher levels of well-being.