Background/ problem: Medical tourism has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry; however, research remains fragmented across isolated theoretical perspectives and is concentrated in limited geographic contexts. A key gap concerns how safety perceptions, trust, and psychological needs, rather than cost alone, shape cross-border healthcare decision-making. Objective/ purpose: This systematic literature review synthesizes a decade of scholarship (2015–2025) to investigate the extent to which safety, trust, and psychological factors, rather than cost alone, drive cross-border healthcare decision-making. It proposes an integrated behavioral framework connecting the theory of planned behavior (TPB), protection motivation theory (PMT), self-determination theory (SDT), and trust theory across antecedents, mediating mechanisms, and outcomes to provide a more comprehensive theoretical lens for understanding medical tourism behaviors. Design and Methodology: Following PRISMA guidelines, 34 peer-reviewed Scopus-indexed articles were systematically analyzed to examine behavioral intentions, service quality, satisfaction, and revisit intentions at international medical tourism destinations. Results: The findings suggest that medical tourism is better understood as a safety and trust-driven coping response to healthcare system failure. Safety expectancy and waiting time appeared to be stronger decision drivers than cost considerations in the reviewed studies. Doctor interaction quality consistently emerged as the strongest service quality predictor across the reviewed studies. Conclusion and Implications: This review indicates a potential reframing of medical tourism as a safety and trust-driven behavioral response, highlighting the relevance of the theories (TPB, PMT, SDT) and trust-based explanations. Providers should emphasize safety communication, marketers should strengthen cognitive trust signals, and policymakers should address the constraints of wait time. Future research should adopt cross-cultural and longitudinal designs to clarify these behavioral pathways across contexts.
Background/Problem: Job burnout is a critical and costly issue among frontline hospitality employees, often intensified by destructive leadership styles such as punitive supervision. While the detrimental link between punitive supervision and burnout is established, the precise cascading psychological mechanism—a key focus for theoretical refinement—remains underexplored within behavioral Science. Objective/Purpose: Based on the Conservation of Resources (COR) and Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theories, this study examines how punitive supervision impacts job burnout through the sequential mediation of organizational injustice and work alienation. Design and Methodology: Data were collected from frontline employees working in 4- and 5-star hotels in Egypt using a survey-based design. The responses of 306 participants were analyzed with the PROCESS macro, allowing for the examination of both direct and serial indirect effects Results: The findings indicate that punitive supervision is a significant predictor of job burnout. Organizational injustice and work alienation sequentially mediate this relationship, suggesting that employees subjected to punitive supervision perceive unfair treatment, experience alienation, and consequently exhibit higher burnout. These results confirm that both organizational-behavioral and psycho-social mechanisms contribute to understanding burnout in hospitality contexts. Conclusion and Implications: The study highlights the negative consequences of punitive supervision on frontline hotel employees and emphasizes the importance of fairness and engagement-enhancing practices. Managers should adopt supportive supervision, transparent policies, and interventions that reduce employee alienation to enhance well-being, mitigate burnout, and improve overall organizational performance.
Background: The rapid development of digital technology has amplified pleasure-driven behavior with socioeconomic implications, positioning hedonic motivation as a key explanatory concept. However, its interpretation remains divided between psychological and sociological approaches. This gap reflects the lack of integrative studies linking classical behavioral theory to contemporary digital consumption dynamics. Objective: This study aimed to systematically map the intellectual structure of hedonic motivation research by examining publication trends in digital consumption, identifying dominant psychological and sociological themes, and interpreting these patterns through Veblen's classic theory of conspicuous consumption. Design and Methodology: A bibliometric analysis was conducted on 111 articles from the Scopus database, published from 2004 to 2024, using Biblioshiny. This research combines bibliometric analysis with theoretical interpretation. Results: The analysis identifies a significant growth in publications over the past two decades, with major contributions from China, the United States, and Indonesia. The findings confirm the enduring relevance of Veblen's theory, revealing its modern embodiment through social media influencers. Identify three main research clusters: impulse buying, the utilitarian-hedonic dualism, and technology adoption. Conclusion and Implications: This study extends Veblen's theory by linking macro-socioeconomic factors and micro-psychological mechanisms. Specifically, the analysis reveals that hedonic motivation in digital consumption is mediated by social comparison and fear of missing out (FOMO). These findings are useful for: (1) behavioral scientists in designing “digital nudges” that reduce impulse buying; (2) for policymakers in developing digital financial literacy that targets emotional biases; and (3) for educators in creating sustainable consumption awareness curricula.
Background: Nearly half of Thai middle-class employees, aged 40–59 years, lack retirement readiness. They are carrying heavy household debt, postpone saving, underestimate post-retirement expenses, and rely on an underfunded pension system. This gap stems from the common assumption that pre-retirees have already prepared themselves, leading to their needs being overlooked. Objective: This study explored the key conditions that shaped positive financial behaviors and generated actionable guidelines to promote positive financial behaviors and retirement readiness among Thai middle-class employees. Design and Methodology: Based on a constructivist qualitative case study approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with financially successful pre-retirees or retirees, using a purposive snowball sampling technique that continued until data saturation. Documentary evidence was also included for triangulation. Verbatim transcripts underwent reflexive thematic analysis, with member checks and an audit trail ensuring rigor. Findings: The findings indicated that positive financial behaviors supported daily needs, debt management, emergency savings, and life-goals planning. The determinants of these behaviors included attitudes, personal traits, socioeconomic context, and financial knowledge. Actionable strategies involved cultivating self-awareness, learning from role-models, using financial tools, implementing tailored programs, providing hands-on training, and maintaining ongoing tracking and evaluation. Conclusion and Implications: The study’s originality stems from integrating practitioner perspectives to generate strategic behavioral guidelines. These guidelines provide direction for policymakers and educators to design financial programs that clos the intention-action gap and address financial behavioral biases, ultimately enhancing the retirement readiness of Thai pre-retirees and supporting the development of sustained positive financial behaviors.
Background/ problem: With the silverware handicraft sector is an important part of Thailand's cultural economy, employees' inventiveness and creativity have become increasingly important for maintaining competitiveness. Previous studies have mostly concentrated on product design, paying little attention to how organizational and human factors interact to influence such behavior. Objective/ purpose: This study aimed to 1) explore how organizational contexts and individual experiences shape creative and innovative behavior among personnel in the silverware handicraft industry; and 2) to examine the relationships among these factors. Design and Methodology: This study employed an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach. In the qualitative phase, in-depth interviews were conducted with five experienced silverware entrepreneurs, which also informed instrument development for the quantitative phase. Data were collected from 214 employees and analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Results: Qualitative findings revealed that creative and innovative behavior was shaped by leadership roles, organizational systems and policies, organizational climate and culture, employee competencies, and the work environment. Quantitative results showed strong interrelationships among organizational variables, prompting their integration into a higher-order construct-organizational context. Both organizational context (beta = .21, p < .05) and individual attributes (beta = .62, p < .05) had significant positive effects, with individual attributes the stronger predictor. Conclusion and Implications: The findings support the interactionist perspective, showing that creative and innovative behavior arises from the interplay between individual capabilities and organizational conditions. For traditional craft industries, fostering innovation requires aligning supportive organizational contexts with personnel development through continuous learning and participatory practices.
Background/ problem: Despite state-led empowerment reforms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Emirati women school principals experience tension between leadership roles and entrenched cultural expectations. Norms related to family honor, modesty, male guardianship, and relational harmony, continue to shape leadership identity formation, agency, and psychological outcomes, influencing leadership legitimacy and professional identity. Objective/ purpose: This study examines how cultural determinism influences leadership identity, agency, and psychological well-being among Emirati women school leaders on the East Coast of the UAE. Design and Methodology: A convergent parallel mixed methods design was implemented. Correlation and regression analysis were used to test the influence of cultural determinism on psychological outcomes from the data gathered through survey of 253 principal and vice-principals. At the stage of interpretation, the results were integrated with phenomenological thematic analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews. Results: The quantitative results indicated a strong and significant association between cultural determinism and psychological outcomes, F(1, 251) = 496.35, p < .001, explaining 66% of the variance (R-2 = .66). Cultural influence was a significant predictor for affective strain, emotional regulation demands, and internalized expectations of leadership presence, although not significantly associated with any structural variables. The qualitative results revealed six interconnected themes describing how leaders negotiate cultural norms through moral legitimacy, relational leadership, and strategic restraint. Conclusion and Implications: Findings show a significant relationship between cultural determinism and psychological outcomes, which occur via emotional regulation, relational legitimacy, and negotiated agency. The study implies that developing leaders in a collectivist society requires culturally-informed methods that incorporate psychological aspects of leadership.
Background/problem: Digital technology has reshaped learning and daily life, while introducing risks for higher education such as addictive behaviors and mental health concerns. While global research has advanced digital well-being, integrated behavioral science interventions for undergraduates remain limited in Thailand. Objective/purpose: This study aimed to (1) explore perceptions and institutional contexts of digital well-being to design and validate a behavioral science intervention framework; (2) evaluate its effectiveness in improving students' digital well-being; and (3) compare experimental and control group outcomes across pretest, posttest, and follow-up. Design and Methodology: A mixed methods design was used. Focus groups (n = 30; 15 faculty, 15 undergraduates) guided the development of a seven-step behavioral science intervention. The program was delivered to 30 undergraduates over seven weeks via in-class sessions, online modules, and structured tasks. Quantitative evaluation used repeated measures ANOVA to assess changes in five digital well-being dimensions at a four-week follow-up, supported by classroom observations and student feedback. Results: The experimental group showed significant improvements across all five dimensions versus the control group (F(1, 58) = 9.84, p < .001), with medium to large effect sizes (eta & sup2; = .18-.32). Gains in self-regulation, reflective awareness, and collaborative engagement were sustained, with mean scores rising 15-22% from baseline; the control group showed minimal or declining outcomes. Conclusion and Implications: A theory-driven, seven-step behavioral science framework enhanced undergraduate digital well-being, offering a scalable model to foster healthier digital habits and purposeful technology use in higher education.
Background: Teachers' work happiness is important for effective teaching and student learning. In Thailand, teachers have faced increasing professional demands due to ongoing educational reform and the integration of digital technologies in schools. However, research remains fragmented, and few studies in Thailand have examined whether these influences vary by school size. Objective: This study aimed to (1) develop and test a causal model of the school learning ecosystem influencing teachers' work happiness; and (2) examine differences by school size using multi-group SEM. Design and Methodology: Data were collected from 913 teachers and school administrators in Thailand using a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire through multistage stratified random sampling. Analyses in Mplus included CFA, SEM, and multi-group SEM. Results: The measurement model showed excellent fit [(chi(2) (199) = 517.39, CFI = .97, TLI = .96, RMSEA = .04, SRMR = .04)]. The SEM results indicated that learning and collaborative culture and stability and professional development significantly influenced teachers' work happiness. The multi-group model also showed acceptable fit [(chi(2) (898) = 1495.87, CFI = .95, TLI = .94, RMSEA = .05, SRMR = .08)]. Stability and professional development had a significant effect across all school sizes, while the effect of learning and collaborative culture varied by school size. Conclusion and Implications: The school learning ecosystem provides an integrated explanation of teachers' work happiness. Strengthening teachers' stability, professional growth, and collaborative learning culture may help sustain teachers' work happiness, enhance teacher well-being, and inform school development and teacher support policies in Thailand.
Background/problem: Loneliness is a growing public health concern, influencing mental health, social well-being, and overall quality of life. In Thailand, government agencies increasingly focus on urban populations. Objective/purpose: This qualitative, existential-phenomenological study (investigating lived experience) explored how young adult men in Bangkok experience loneliness, highlighting personal, cultural, and environmental influences. Design and Methodology: Nineteen men (aged 22-30 years) with severe loneliness, as indicated by the Thai De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale, participated in the in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed using a whole-part-whole method, member checking, and reflexivity, interpreted through embodied cognition, a theory that cognitive processes are grounded in bodily interactions with the environment. Findings: Results indicate that loneliness emerges as an emotional and bodily disconnection from self, others, or the environment, shaped by physical sensations, emotional suppression and circumstances of urban living. Six themes were identified: (1) loneliness as an ongoing embodied interaction with the world; (2) urban landscapes amplifying loneliness; (3) loneliness arising from unmet personal and social expectations; (4) disconnection from meaningful shared experiences; (5) feeling of diminished self-worth and identity; and (6) loneliness as a necessary tool for living. Conclusion and Implications: These findings underscore the multifaceted nature of loneliness, which can be both debilitating and transformative. Interventions must address embodied and socio-environmental dimensions, particularly considering gender-specific masculine norms. Interventions may include urban design that fosters communal engagement, culturally attuned counseling to promote emotional expressiveness and social connection, and mindfulness-based practices to cultivate resilience and well-being.
Background/problem: Organizations increasingly recognize that innovation depends not only on formal R&D investments but also on individual employees’ innovative behaviors. However, the organizational conditions that foster such behaviors remain incompletely understood. Objective/purpose: This study explores the relationship between the error management climate and innovation behavior among junior employees in China’s small and medium-sized game software development enterprises by collecting data from these employees, with psychological empowerment as a mediating mechanism. Design and Methodology: Drawing on error management theory, psychological empowerment theory, and innovation research, this study developed and tested a mediation model using survey data from 479 junior employees in China. Structural equation modeling and bootstrap mediation analysis were employed to test the hypothesized relationships. Results: Learning from errors showed the largest indirect effect on innovation behavior through psychological empowerment (indirect effect = .08, 95% CI [.03, .14], p = .00). Thinking about errors also demonstrated a significant indirect effect (0.06, 95% CI [.03, .11], p = .00). Error competence (0.07, 95% CI [0.03, 0.13], p = .00) and error communication (0.05, 95% CI [0.01, 0.11], p = .01) both showed significant indirect effects despite their non-significant direct effects. Conclusion and Implications: These findings highlight the psychological mechanisms through which an organizational atmosphere that tolerates errors promotes innovation, and indicate that enterprises should create a tolerance-for-errors environment to enhance the empowerment and innovative behavior of junior employees, especially those who may be more sensitive to the signals of the organizational atmosphere.
Background: Many countries are becoming aging societies, making retirement planning a critical priority. However, limited financial literacy and financial bias hinder laborers' retirement planning, particularly in Thailand's Songkhla Province, which is characterized as a semi-urban, multicultural community and a major commercial center in southern Thailand. Objective: This study examines the relationship between financial literacy and retirement financial planning, with financial biases and attitudes as mediating variables. Design and Methodology: Data were collected using a questionnaire administered through fieldwork from 400 formal and informal laborers from Songkhla Province in Thailand. The study used proportionate stratified sampling to collect data, which were then analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results: Financial literacy did not significantly influence retirement financial planning (beta = .17, p = .08), financial biases (beta = -.66, p = .00), and financial attitudes (beta = .45, p = .00). Financial biases negatively predicted retirement planning (beta = -.42, p = .00) and mediated the effect of financial literacy (beta = .28, p = .00), while financial attitudes positively affected retirement planning (beta = .31, p = .00) and also served as a mediator (beta = .14, p = .02). Conclusion and Implications: This study integrates behavioral science and behavioral finance to show how financial literacy shapes attitudes and biases in retirement decisions. The findings highlight its role in improving retirement planning and reducing biases. However, financial literacy alone may be insufficient; thus, policies should promote positive financial attitudes and reduce behavioural biases to enhance effective retirement planning.
Background: School connectedness is a critical factor influencing adolescent mental health. However, the mechanisms through which its multidimensional components, such as teacher support, peer support, social participation, and perceived safety, influence well-being in Vietnam remain underexplored. Objective: This study examined the mechanism through which multidimensional school connectedness influences the mental health of Vietnamese adolescents. Method: Drawing on a cross-sectional sample of 395 lower secondary students (M-age = 12.3, SD = 1.05) from public secondary schools in Vietnam, the study first validated the component structure of the school connectedness scale using principal component analysis (PCA) with Promax rotation. Mediation analyses were then conducted using the PROCESS macro to examine the role of social-emotional competence. Results: The analysis identified a clear four-component structure of the scale, accounting for a substantial proportion of the variance (55.46%) and indicating good construct validity (KMO = .90; Bartlett's test, p < .001). Mediation analyses revealed that social-emotional competence significantly mediated the relationship between school connectedness and mental health. Specifically, the indirect effects were robust (ab = -.16 to -.21, 95% CI [-.33, -.07]), whereas several direct effects became non-significant after the mediator was included. Conclusion and Implications: School connectedness may support adolescent mental health partly through the development of social-emotional competence. These findings highlight the importance of strengthening supportive school environments and implementing school-based social-emotional learning interventions to promote student mental health.
Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is an escalating public health issue in rapidly urbanizing middle-income countries. In Thailand, working-age adults increasingly develop prediabetes due to sedentary lifestyles, high glycemic diets, and limited access to supportive food environments. Existing research on determinants of low glycemic dietary practices remains fragmented, with few studies applying an integrated behavioral framework. Objective: This study examined behavioral pathways influencing low GI dietary behavior among urban adults with prediabetes, guided by the capability-opportunity-motivation-behavior (COM-B) model. Design and Methodology: A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted among 450 adults clinically diagnosed with prediabetes in Bangkok. Data were collected using a COM-B based questionnaire for assessing psychological and physical capability, social and physical opportunity, and reflective and automatic motivation. Path analysis using maximum likelihood estimation in LISREL version 8.72 assessed model fit and structural relationships. Results: The model demonstrated excellent fit (chi(2) = .32, df = 1, p = .57; RMSEA = .000; CFI = 1.00; SRMR = .005). Psychological capability (beta = .47), physical capability (beta = .42), physical opportunity (beta = .53), social opportunity (beta = .15), automatic motivation (beta = .27), and reflective motivation (beta = .09) significantly predicted low GI dietary behavior, explaining 77% of the variance. Conclusion and Implications: Capability and opportunity were the strongest determinants of low GI dietary behavior. Interventions that enhance nutritional skills and strengthen supportive social and physical food environments may be more effective than motivation focused strategies for improving dietary practices among urban adults with prediabetes.
Background: Customer incivility has become a pervasive stressor in hospitality. Repeated exposure to rude or disrespectful customer behaviors depletes emotional resources, increasing burnout and deviant behavior directed at customers. However, the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions remain unclear. Objective: Drawing on conservation of resources theory and the customer orientation paradox, this study examines whether burnout mediates the relationship between customer incivility and deviant behavior directed at customers and whether customer orientation moderates this mediation. Design and Methodology: Using a cross-sectional survey design and purposive quota sampling, data were collected from 548 hotel employees in medium-and large-sized hotels in a southern province of Thailand. Structural equation modeling with latent moderated mediation was employed to test hypotheses. Results: Customer incivility was positively associated with employees' deviant behavior directed at customers through burnout (standardized indirect effect = .06, 95% CI [.03, .10]). Customer orientation strengthened the relationship between customer incivility and burnout (standardized interaction effect = .10, 95% CI [.02, .18]). The indirect effect via burnout was stronger among employees with high customer orientation (standardized indirect effect = .14, 95% CI [.03, .26]) but nonsignificant among those with low customer orientation (standardized indirect effect = .01, 95% CI [-.04, .07]). Conclusion and Implications: The findings highlight emotional resource depletion and cognitive dissonance as key mechanisms explaining why highly customer-oriented employees are vulnerable to customer incivility. Organizations should complement customer-oriented service values with emotion regulation training, supervisory support, and clear boundary-setting policies to protect employee wellbeing and prevent deviant service behaviors.
Background: Job burnout is a critical issue among frontline hospitality employees, often intensified by punitive supervision. Although the harmful link is established, the precise sequential psychological mechanism-from organizational injustice to work alienation-remains an underexplored theoretical gap. Objective: Based on conservation of resources (COR) and job demands-resources (JD-R) theories, this study examines how punitive supervision impacts job burnout through the sequential mediation of organizational injustice and work alienation. Design and Methodology: Using a cross-sectional, survey-based design, data were collected from 306 frontline employees in Egyptian hotels. The study focuses on the psychological pathway through which punitive supervisory behavior triggers a cascade of resource loss, ultimately leading to job burnout. Results: Results of a serial mediation analysis indicated that the relationship between punitive supervision and job burnout was significantly mediated in serial by organizational injustice and work alienation (indirect effect = .09, 95% CI [ .04, .15]). This demonstrates that organizational injustice and work alienation jointly mediate the relationship between punitive supervision and burnout, such that punitive supervisory practices increase perceptions of unfairness, which subsequently fosters work alienation and ultimately intensifies employee burnout. Conclusion and Implications: This study highlights the negative consequences of punitive supervision and extends application of COR and JD-R models by delineating the sequential links from perceived injustice to alienation. To foster positive behavior, change, organizations should implement behavior-based training for supervisors to reduce punitive actions and design policies that institutionalize procedural justice, thereby protecting the emotional resources of employees and mitigating burnout.
Background: Digital transformation is reshaping global business ecosystems; however, Vietnamese import-export enterprises often struggle to align technological adoption with behavioral and organizational enablers such as culture and leadership. Objective: Grounded in the organizational learning theory and the behavioral agency theory, this study examines how digital transformation translates into business model innovation through behavioral mechanisms. By linking technology, culture, and leadership, the research addresses the gap in understanding internal drivers of innovation within emerging market contexts. Design and Methodology: A mixed-method design was employed. Qualitative interviews with five experts refined the behavioral constructs, followed by a survey of 148 import-export enterprises. PLS-SEM was used to test the hypothesized relationships, while multigroup analysis explored firm-level differences. Results: Digital transformation positively affects business model innovation (beta = .29, p < .001) and digital culture (beta = .69, p < .001). Digital culture strongly mediates the relationship (beta = .32, p < .001), while digital leadership moderates it (beta = .17, p = .01). The model explains 62% of the variance in business model innovation (R-2 = .62). No significant differences were found in the structural relationships among constructs based on various enterprise characteristics. Conclusion and Implications: Findings highlight that digital transformation outcomes depend on behavioral change processes rather than technology alone. Managers should cultivate organizational learning, foster shared cognitive frames, and strengthen leadership signaling to align human decision-making with strategic digital initiatives.
Background: The Philippine mental health act of 2018 reshaped the nation's mental health care. Despite its global relevance, few studies examine factors affecting college mental health outcomes. Objective: Based on Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, this study aims to develop a structural model illustrating the direct and indirect relationships between variables and mental health. Design and Methodology: The study surveyed 510 randomly selected students from state and local universities in Philippines, employing a path model to examine relationships among the variables. Results: The study found that mental health was significantly influenced by social support (beta = .22, p < .001), academic stress (beta = .21, p < .001), service accessibility (beta = .18, p < .001), and campus policies (beta = .16, p < .001). Mental health literacy directly influences help-seeking (beta = .42, p < .001). Campus policies were influenced by mental health literacy (beta = .16, p < .001) and service accessibility (beta = .66, p < .001). Campus culture (beta = .23, p < .001), service accessibility (beta = .14, p < .001), academic stress (beta = .15, p < .001), and mental health literacy (beta = .13, p < .001) also influenced social support. Mental health literacy was negatively correlated with stigma (beta = -.34, p < .001), while campus culture was positively linked to service accessibility (beta = .39, p < .001). Mediator effect of campus policies and social support was confirmed. Conclusion and Implications: These findings underscore the need for a systemic approach to mental health promotion in state universities, offering a framework to guide the development of supportive, well-being-oriented academic environments. Educational institutions are encouraged to promote mental health literacy programs aimed at reducing mental health stigma and actively promoting students' willingness to seek help.
Background: Nearly half of Thai middle-class employees, aged 40-59 years, lack retirement readiness. They are carrying heavy household debt, postpone saving, underestimate post-retirement expenses, and rely on an underfunded pension system. This gap stems from the common assumption that pre-retirees have already prepared themselves, leading to their needs being overlooked. Objective: This study explored the key conditions that shaped positive financial behaviors and generated actionable guidelines to promote positive financial behaviors and retirement readiness among Thai middleclass employees. Design and Methodology: Based on a constructivist qualitative case study approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with financially successful pre-retirees or retirees, using a purposive snowball sampling technique that continued until data saturation. Documentary evidence was also included for triangulation. Verbatim transcripts underwent reflexive thematic analysis, with member checks and an audit trail ensuring rigor. Findings: The findings indicated that positive financial behaviors supported daily needs, debt management, emergency savings, and life-goals planning. The determinants of these behaviors included attitudes, personal traits, socioeconomic context, and financial knowledge. Actionable strategies involved cultivating self-awareness, learning from role-models, using financial tools, implementing tailored programs, providing hands-on training, and maintaining ongoing tracking and evaluation. Conclusion and Implications: The study's originality stems from integrating practitioner perspectives to generate strategic behavioral guidelines. These guidelines provide direction for policymakers and educators to design financial programs that clos the intention-action gap and address financial behavioral biases, ultimately enhancing the retirement readiness of Thai pre-retirees and supporting the development of sustained positive financial behaviors.
Background: The Urak Lawoi ethnic group in Koh Lanta, Thailand, maintains a close bond with nature but faces challenges due to strict conservation laws that conflict with their traditional livelihoods. Limited formal education and communication gaps have led to misunderstandings and difficulties in legal adaptation. While awareness of conservation exists, the community lacks a structured learning process to integrate these laws into their daily practices effectively. Objective: This study aims to explore the behavioral dimensions of learning, influencing factors, and barriers to adaptation regarding conservation laws among the Urak Lawoi community. Design and Methodology: This qualitative study employed a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Fifteen key informants, including community leaders, spokespeople, local wisdom teacher and community members, were selected through purposive sampling. Data was collected via semi structured interviews, participant observations, and informal conversations. Content analysis and triangulation were used to ensure the credibility of the findings. Findings: The study reveals that learning among the Urak Lawoi is fundamentally experiential and socially embedded, relying on direct observation, intergenerational transmission, and a cyclical process of daily survival rather than linear instruction. Key influencing factors include strong community leadership and social role modeling. However, significant barriers hinder adaptation, specifically a lack of government resources, limited access to modern technology, and a generational gap in perception. Conclusion and Implications: The findings suggest that legal compliance cannot rely solely on enforcement but requires a hybrid learning approach that validates traditional wisdom while integrating modern support systems. Sustainable coexistence requires culturally sensitive interventions, improved access to information, and collaborative policies to empower the community and bridge the gap between traditional practices and modern conservation mandates.
Background: Mental health literacy among rural women remains low in countries such as India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Turkey, and Ghana. Limited awareness, stigma, and restrictive socio-cultural norms contribute to poor recognition, delayed help-seeking, and underutilization of services. Traditional beliefs, rigid gender roles, and poor access to professional care compound these issues, making rural women’s mental health an overlooked concern.Objective: This systematic review examined levels of mental health literacy among rural women, explored socio-cultural influences on mental health perceptions, and identified barriers to care, with implications for behavioral science and policy in low- and middle-income countries.Design and Methodology: Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, five databases were searched, yielding 170 records. Twelve peer-reviewed studies published between 2008 and 2025 met inclusion criteria, with 2008 chosen as the launch of WHO’s mental health gap action programme. A thematic synthesis, guided by the health belief model and socio-ecological perspectives, integrated findings across quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods designs.Results: Four major themes emerged. Firstly, mental health literacy was low, through regional variations were observed. Secondly, socio-cultural influences shaped perception, with stigma, supernatural attributions, and reliance on traditional treatments widely reported. Thirdly, barriers included poor access, somatic presentations, affordability, and gender-based restrictions. Finally, interventions such as community education, awareness campaigns, and integration of traditional and biomedical care improved knowledge and reduce stigma, through sustainability was limited.Conclusion and Implications: Despite some progress, rural women face persistent disadvantages. Interventions must be culturally tailored, community-based, and theory-driven, while future research should emphasize sustainability, intersectional, and rigorous evaluation to strengthen policy impact.
