volume-22-number-1

Author: Joseph Ching Velasco

Year: 2022, Volume 22 Number 1

Pages: 1-12

This article explores the final movement and transformation of “traditional” diplomatic activities between Vietnam and China in a unique historical period from 1858 to 1885. In particular, this period begins when French colonialists, a third factor, appeared and concludes when the tributary relationship between Vietnam and China ended in accordance with the Tianjin Treaty signed between France and China. Vietnam tried to maintain peaceful and open relations with China. Concurrently, the Qing Dynasty strived to maintain a relationship with its Vietnamese “vassal.” The Qing Dynasty needed both the political and economic interests of its vassal, especially when its own prestige was decreasing. However, despite these efforts, during this period, the traditional diplomacy between the two countries deteriorated and then came to a permanent end. This occurred when China compromised with France and was forced to officially abandon its “suzerain” right in Vietnam (under the Tianjin Treaty signed with France on June 9, 1885). The end of the Vietnam–China tributary relationship at this time contributed to the accelerated collapse of the long-standing Chinese tributary system in East Asia and to the clarification of the mutability of the so-called “center.”

Keywords: Vietnam, China, France, diplomacy, tributary relationship

Pages: 13-23

Stateless hill tribes living with HIV/AIDS are the most vulnerable population in Thailand. This article adopts the issue of the structural and cultural violence of Johan Galtung as a conceptual framework and analytical tool to narrate their experiences. Data encompassing the experiences of structural and cultural violence were collected from the 53 eligible stateless hill tribes living with HIV/AIDS recruited from 10 district hospitals and 15 communities in Chiang Rai, Thailand, using a combination of the snowball technique and purposive sampling. The present authors argue that the stateless hill tribes living with HIV/AIDS mainly experienced the following two dimensions of violence: 1) statelessness as a structural violence practice and 2) stigma as a cultural violence practice. This study revealed the subjective experiences of stateless hill tribes living with HIV/AIDS in Chiang Rai, Thailand, while engaging with the violence sphere.

Keywords: structural and cultural violence, stateless hill tribes, HIV/AIDS, stigma, access to healthcare

Pages: 24-34

The human population is aging faster and faster than in the past. As a result, it can be demographically proven that there will be more people older than 60 worldwide in the next 35 years. According to the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA’s) India Aging Report 2017, the proportion of people over 60 could increase from 8% in 2015 to 19% in 2050. The Indian government in particular states in its report that there will be 340 million people over 60 by 2050, creating new challenges due to specific characteristics and needs. However, this often overlooks the group of older consumers who make up a significant part of the world’s annually growing population. Therefore, this paper explores the general characteristics of older consumers, their latent needs, and factors that influence their food choices. This is done through thorough literature review using secondary sources to identify factors influencing food shopping and shop selection among older consumers in India.

Keywords: aging consumers, consumer characteristics, food choice, store selection, India

Pages: 35-46

Although there exist separate lines of research showing that nature relatedness and materialism independently promote and/or hinder environmentalism, little research has looked at the influence of these two psychological factors on people’s environmental attitudes when examined in concert with each other. This is important because in reality, psychological constructs operate simultaneously and often interactively within a person. The current research investigated the moderating role of materialism on the positive impact of nature relatedness on environmental attitudes in Filipino adults within the context of massive environmental degradation and modernization in the Philippines. Using a cross-sectional online survey, data were collected from 373 females and 216 males (mean age = 30.06, SD age = 13.31) in urban areas in Metro Manila, Philippines. Findings revealed that materialism moderated the positive impact of nature relatedness on environmental attitudes. Specifically, the positive impact of nature relatedness on environmental attitudes was strong among people with lower levels of materialism and weak among those with moderate levels and diminishes among people with high levels of materialistic values. The present findings offer novel insights on how materialistic values could suppress the influence of nature relatedness as a promoting factor in encouraging environmental attitudes. Limitations, future directions, and implications are discussed.

Keywords: nature relatedness, environmental attitudes, materialism, values, Philippines

Pages: 47-59

This study aims to examine the psychometric properties of the Malay language version of the STEM Efficacy for Children Scale (SECS). This initiative involved 389 primary school children aged 10–11 in Klang Valley, Selangor, Malaysia. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to identify the underlying factors within 16 items in SECS, followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to determine the model and reliability of the scale. Based on EFA, SECS managed to capture three factors related to STEM, namely, efficacy in learning science and mathematics, as well as efficacy in the application of engineering. SECS obtained a high Cronbach’s alpha index (>0.8), and CFA confirmed that the model provided a good fit for the data collected. The average variance extracted demonstrated that all constructs in the model were >.50, while the composite reliability was >.80. These findings verify that the scale obtained good internal consistency. Therefore, the analysis proved that SECS is considered reliable and valid in capturing STEM efficacy among primary school children. The scale is expected to offer useful insights for educators, schools, and the government in their policy planning and execution concerning STEM teaching and learning at the primary school level.

Keywords: STEM education, primary school, efficacy, STEM Efficacy for Children Scale (SECS), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), exploratory factor analysis (EFA)

Pages: 60-77

The paper aims to examine the effects of authentic leadership and perceived organizational support on employees’ turnover intention and investigate the mediating effect of perceived organizational support on the relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention. The participants of the study were the 203 employees from select business process outsourcing companies within Pampanga, Philippines. The study implemented a predictive-causal research approach and a quantitative research design to gauge the relationship between perceived organizational support, authentic leadership, and turnover intention. Partial least squares–structural equation modeling was further employed to measure the direct and indirect effects of the structural model. The findings revealed that authentic leadership and perceived organizational support are significantly and negatively related to turnover intention. Moreover, a significant and positive relationship between authentic leadership and perceived organizational support was observed. Perceived organizational support was also found to significantly mediate the negative relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention. The present study offers a new perspective on perceived organizational support as a mediator on turnover intentions in the Philippine setting. It also provides a view on authentic leadership as an important leadership quality in reducing employee withdrawal behaviors.

Keywords: perceived organizational support, authentic leadership, turnover intention, BPO companies

Pages: 78-91

One fundamental healthcare issue brought to the fore by the current COVID-19 pandemic concerns the scope and nature of the right to healthcare. Given our increasing need for the usually limited healthcare resources, to what extent can we demand provision of these resources as a matter of right? One philosophical way of handling this issue is to clarify the nature of this right. Using the challenges of COVID-19 in the Philippines as the context of analysis, we argue for the view that regards the right to healthcare as fundamentally moral in kind, which should thereby guide its legal and contractual appropriations. In particular, we respond to objections against this view stemming from issues concerning the universality and satisfiability of the right’s correlative duty. We deal with such issues by invoking the relative degree of incumbency of moral rights and the capability-relativity of positive duties. We further contend that as these factors define the scope of the moral right to healthcare, they thus constrain what we can demand as a matter of right to meet our healthcare needs in this time of the pandemic.

Keywords: right to health, right to healthcare, pandemic, COVID-19, health ethics

Pages: 92-105

Extracurricular activities (ECAs) performed outside the realm of a student’s academic activities such as sports, drama, music, and dance play an integral part in their educational experience and positive youth development. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of studies exploring the interrelationship of ECA involvement on the compassion, academic competence, and commitment of collegiate students. Hence, this study determined the influence of ECA involvement on the compassion, academic competence, and commitment of collegiate students. Employing a covariance-based structural equation modeling, a descriptive-correlational design was conducted among 365 consenting collegiate students who completed standardized instruments to measure their ECAs profile, compassion, academic competence, and commitment. Results showed that the breadth of ECA involvement, which refers to the total number of organizations that a respondent is a member of, had an indirect, positive effect on compassion (β = 0.06, p < 0.05) and commitment (β = 0.06, p < 0.05) and a direct, negative influence on academic competence (β = −0.14, p < 0.05). Although social- and arts-related ECAs promoted compassion (β = 0.16, p < 0.01) and commitment (β = 0.26, p < 0.05), respectively, sports-related ECAs deterred academic competence (β = −0.12, p < 0.05). The model highlights that although ECA involvement may bring positive outcomes, participation in numerous organizations may hinder academic competence, an understanding that accentuates the need for institutional policies and guidelines on ECA involvement of collegiate students.

Keywords: extracurricular activities, compassion, academic competence, commitment, structural equation modeling

Pages: 106-120

This study examines the effect of the economic policy uncertainty (EPU) index on firm value. The financial data of 105 conventional banks for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries over 2009–2019 were used, totaling 1,155 observations. We use the panel vector autoregression estimate, and the results show that EPU can predict the firm value of conventional banks. When we use the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimates, the findings indicate that EPU has a significant impact on BRICS countries’ firm value. The GMM analysis confirms the prediction of the panel vector autoregression that the EPU index with other firm-specific and macroeconomic variables significantly affects firm value. This study presents a unique and significant implication by focusing on financial institutions where there have been limited empirical studies. Advanced analytical techniques are conducted in the study over a long time using recent data.

Keywords: BRICS, conventional banks, economic policy uncertainty, firm value, panel VAR

Pages: 121-141

The Philippines is highly vulnerable to weather-related and other natural disasters given its location in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Its disaster organization, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council or NDRRMC, however, has limited capacity, as demonstrated in its handling of natural disasters in the last 20 years. In this paper, we adopt a comparative approach and compare the NDRRMC with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and South Korea’s Disaster and Safety Management (DSM) in terms of mandate, organizational structure, resources, and technical capacity to identify possible areas requiring reform. We observe that the NDRRMC’s working group structure, policy making, coordination, integration, supervision, monitoring and evaluation mandate, lack of strong leadership structure, and limited resources and capacities hinder it from providing a swift and effective response. This warrants a revisiting of policies and benchmarking on other disaster organizations like the U.S. FEMA and South Korea’s DSM. Our findings lead us to recommend that the Philippines consider establishing a separate Department of Disaster Resilience equipped with the mandate, authority, leadership structure, resources, and technical capability to effectively prepare and respond to disasters instead of simply expanding the authority of the NDRRMC.

Keywords: disaster management, resilience, climate change, comparative approach, disaster risk reduction and management, natural disasters

Pages: 142-157

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many to become isolated, increased feelings of loneliness, and given rise to mental health issues. Using the Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping, this study looked at the predictors of mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic across age groups. Results showed that COVID-19 stressors, resilience, nonreactivity, and coping behaviors predicted stress, anxiety, depression, and psychological well-being. Cluster analysis revealed two age clusters—those between 16 and 35 years and those 36 years and above. The younger group reported greater depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms and poorer psychological well-being compared to the older group. The younger group also reported less resilience, nonreactivity, and use of spiritual coping compared to the older group. The results suggest that the young are most vulnerable during the pandemic, and findings suggest what might be done to provide them mental health psychosocial support.

Keywords: COVID-19, mental health, resilience, nonreactivity, coping behaviors, age

Pages: 158-173

As a result of the government investment in education opportunity, there has been a remarkable expansion of higher education over the last 50 years in Thailand. Nevertheless, it still remains questionable whether the expansion is accompanied by ensuring equality of opportunity in higher education. Thus, this study, employing the concept of intergenerational mobility, examined both cross-sectional and long-term effects of parents’ socioeconomic status on children’s opportunity in higher education with the nationwide socioeconomic data of 2005 and 2017. The results indicated that although the higher education opportunity increased by approximately 30% during the 12-years period, parents’ socioeconomic status still played a significant role for the increased opportunity. For household factors, the higher education opportunity was significantly lower among children in lower income, large-sized, single-parent, or rural households. For parental factors, that was significantly lower among children with lower educated, unemployed, or informal-sector parents. Particularly for income, the opportunity gap was nearly 13 times between the highest and lowest income households. Furthermore, these patterns were persistent or worse during the 12-years period. Among several policy recommendations that we proposed, a family involvement program, which has been identified as an effective intervention to mitigate the gap in educational attainment caused by socioeconomic differences, should be a prior consideration.

Keywords: education opportunity, higher education, university education, social mobility, intergenerational mobility, intergenerational transmission, parents’ socioeconomic backgrounds