Community Emotional Intelligence Network to Address Mental Health Among Coastal Bangladeshis

The WHO-5 Well-Being Index will be used to assess mental wellbeing both before and after the intervention. This tool consists of five statements, each rated on a Likert scale ranging from 'all of the time' to 'at no time'. Responses are scored on a scale from 0 to 5, with reverse scoring applied. Participants will evaluate each statement based on their experiences over the past two weeks. The total raw score, which ranges from 0 to 25, will then be multiplied by 4 to yield the final score, where a score of 0 represents the worst possible wellbeing and 100 represents the best. A raw score below 13 indicates poor wellbeing and serves as a potential indicator for depression.

Climate change-related mental health conditions of the participants will be measured by the Climate Change Anxiety Scale. It is a 22-item questionnaire on a Likert scale ranging from never to almost always. In this questionnaire, Items 1-13 constitute the climate change anxiety scale. Items 1-8 represent cognitive emotional impairment; 9-13 measure functional impairment; 14-16 measure experience of climate change; 17-22 measure behavioral engagement. This tool was culturally and linguistically validated before use. Proper permission was taken from the author for its use

Solastalgia was measured using the Environmental Distress Scale. This scale has previously been used to measure the feelings of loss associated with solastalgia in the aftermath of specific events that caused environmental change or destruction. The EDS includes a sub-scale that measures solastalgia using ten items with possible scores ranging from 0-40. The solastalgia subscale has been used in prior research to assess solastalgia in the aftermath of environmental damage. This tool was culturally and linguistically validated before use. Proper permission was taken from the author for its use.

The DASS-21 (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale - 21 items) is a self-report questionnaire designed to assess the severity of three related emotional states: depression, anxiety, and stress. It consists of 21 items, divided equally into three subscales, each containing 7 items. The depression subscale evaluates feelings of hopelessness and lack of interest, the anxiety subscale measures nervousness and physiological arousal, and the stress subscale gauges tension and irritability. Participants rate each item on a 4-point Likert scale (0-3), where higher scores indicate greater symptom severity.

Emotional intelligence of the participants will be assessed by the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form (TEIQue-SF). This 30-item form includes two items from each of the 15 facets of the TEIQue. Items were selected primarily based on their correlations with the corresponding total facet scores, which ensured broad coverage of the sampling domain of the construct. The -SF can be used in research designs with limited experimental time or wherein trait EI is a peripheral variable. Although it is possible to derive from it scores on the four trait EI factors, in addition to the global score, these tend to have somewhat lower internal consistencies than in the full form of the inventory. The -SF does not yield scores on the 15 trait EI facets.