Civic Engagement, Attitude towards Gender Roles, and Public Leadership Behaviors: A Structural Equation Model on Disaster Resiliency among Barangay Responders

Abstract

The study employed SEM to examine the interconnections between civic participation, attitudes towards gender roles, public leadership behaviors, and the disaster resilience of 400 BDRRM responders. The findings indicated that the respondents exhibit a high level of civic engagement, especially in proactive attitudes and behaviors that foster disaster preparedness and community participation. Respondents exhibit moderate attitudes towards gender roles, supporting egalitarian principles while remaining influenced by traditional and culturally rooted perspectives. People rated public leadership behaviors highly, with ethical leadership and network governance being the most important areas. This means that in disaster situations, accountability, inclusiveness, and collaborative governance are very important. Disaster resilience is also high, with knowledge being the most important sign. Correlation and regression analyses demonstrated that both civic engagement and public leadership behaviors significantly affect disaster resilience; however, public leadership emerged as the most robust predictor across tested models (β = 0.641, p < 0.001), followed by civic engagement (β = 0.124, p < 0.05). Gender role attitudes do not directly exert a significant influence on resilience (β = 0.012, p = 0.741); however, they indirectly enhance resilience by fostering inclusiveness and responsiveness in disaster response. Model 3 provided the best fit among the tested models, indicating that leadership, civic participation, and gender inclusivity work together to increase people's resilience in disasters. These results show that communities need institutionalized leadership training, stronger civic engagement, and policies that account for gender to remain strong and adaptable.