The Effect of Social Capital on Individual Disaster Resilience: The Mediating Role of Fear of Crime

Year 2025, Volume: 12 Issue: 2, 578 - 604, 30.06.2025

Gülhan Şen , Yunus Emre Özer

https://doi.org/10.30798/makuiibf.1581426

Abstract

Disaster resilience is a multifaceted and complex concept influenced by factors such as a society’s level of development, sociodemographic characteristics, vulnerability, disaster awareness, disadvantaged groups, and social capital. Social capital is an essential element of disaster resilience, but today’s conditions can transform communities into fearful and risky societies, negatively impacting social capital and reducing disaster resilience. Interdisciplinary studies are necessary to better understand and examine social capital and fear of crime as social components of disaster resilience. This cross-sectional research design investigates the mediating role of fear of crime in the impact of social capital on individual disaster resilience. This study employs face-to-face surveys conducted between June and September 2021 with 1040 participants residing in the Burdur and Antalya provinces of Türkiye. The data were analyzed using a structural equation model. Given the findings, it was determined that social capital increases individuals’ disaster resilience and decreases their fear of crime. However, individuals’ fear of crime negatively affects their disaster resilience and partially mediates the effect of social capital on individual disaster resilience. Individuals with high social capital are more resilient to disasters, whereas fear of crime reduces this resilience. Therefore, this study emphasizes that policies that strengthen social capital and reduce fear of crime are essential in increasing disaster resilience and offer recommendations.

Keywords

Social Capital , Fear of Crime , Disaster Resilience , Mediation Effect

Ethical Statement

Ethics committee approval for the study was obtained from the Dokuz Eylül University Ethics Committee on April 27, 2021, with decision number E-87347630-640.99-48796. The authors declare that the study was conducted in accordance with research and publication ethics. The authors confirm that no part of the study was generated, either wholly or in part, using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. The authors declare that there are no financial conflicts of interest involving any institution, organization, or individual associated with this article. Additionally, there are no conflicts of interest among the authors. The authors affirm that they contributed equally to all aspects of the research.

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