Climate Change, Socio-Economic Vulnerability and Psychological Distress among Landlords and Farmers in Sindh: A Sociological and SDG-Aligned Study

Abstract

Climate change has posed a growing threat to socio-economic stability and their psychological wellbeing of agrarian communities in Sindh, Pakistan. This paper examines how climate change stressors like floods, excessive rainfall, water shortage, and fluctuations in temperature have influenced the socio-economic susceptibility of landlords and farmers and the mediating influence and moderating impact of psychological distress and community resilience respectively. The quantitative research design was utilized, and structured questionnaires were used to conduct data collection with the 350 respondents based on the most climate-prone districts in Sindh. The measurement and structural models were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through SmartPLS. Results obtained show that climate change stressors have great effect on socio-economic vulnerability both directly and indirectly via psychological distress, which validates part-mediation. The resilience of the community was observed to absorb the negative impact of climatic stressors, which minimized the susceptibility of the respondents. The implications of the policy include the necessity to implement climate-adaptive agriculture, financial protection systems, and community-based interventions regarding mental health. These approaches are in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 1, 2, 3, and 13), which aim at increasing resilience, decreasing poverty, food security and wellbeing in vulnerable farming households.