Dr. John Jamir Benzon R. Aruta Aruta

Dr. John Jamir Benzon R. Aruta Aruta

Philippines

john.jamir.benzon.aruta@gmail.com
De La Salle University
Research work

Dr. John Jamir Benzon R. Aruta's research work centers around the intersection of psychology and sustainability in the Global South. In his research, he explores how psychology principles can be applied to promote sustainability practices in the Global South. He also investigates the impact of climate change on the mental health of people in the Global South, focusing on neglected and vulnerable populations.

 

Professional experience

 

Dr. John Jamir Benzon R. Aruta is an experienced psychology professional with a diverse background in teaching and counseling. He currently serves as Associate Professor at De La Salle University in Manila, Philippines, where he used to be a lecturer, gaining valuable experience in curriculum development, research, and student mentoring. He also worked as senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Sunway University in Malaysia. In addition to his academic roles, Dr. Aruta is also a practicing counseling professional in the Philippines.

 

Education

 

PhD in Counseling Psychology at De La Salle University, Philippines.

Areas of interest & scientific knowledge

Philippines

  • Place of affiliation

Mental Health, Stress and Trauma

  • Mental Health of Vulnerable Populations
  • Climate Change and Mental Health in the Global South

Psychology

  • Environmental Psychology in the Global South
Selected Publications

Application of Psychology for Sustainability in the Global South

  • 2023    Aruta, J.J.B., Simon, P.D., & Ogunbode, C. How can environmental psychology learn from the Global South, (in press) Zeitschrift Umweltpsychologie.
  • 2023    Aruta, J.J.B. Environmental psychology in the Philippines: Growth, challenges, and prospects. International Journal of Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12896.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B. Psychometric validation and environmental psychological correlates of the Light Triad Traits: Evidence from a non-Western country. Journal of Individual Differences, https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000389.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B., Guinto, R., Clements, G.R., & Mahmood, J. Protecting environmental defenders to prevent pandemics. The Lancet Planetary Health, 6(6), e458-e459. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00121-8
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B. & Pakingan, K. Validating nature relatedness in the Philippines: Social responsibility as a cultural driver on why nature relatedness promotes green purchase intention. International Social Science Journal,72(245), 635-654. https://doi: 10.1111/issj.12338.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B. Science literacy promotes energy conservation behaviors in Filipino youth via climate change knowledge efficacy: Evidence from PISA 2018. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, https://doi:10.1017/aee.2022.10.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B. & Ballada, C.J. The impact of nature relatedness on environmental attitudes weakens among materialistic individuals: Evidence from the Philippine context. Asia-Pacific Social Science Review, 22, 1, 35-46.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B. & Paceno, J.L. Social responsibility facilitates the intergenerational transmission of attitudes towards green purchasing in a non-Western country. Ecopsychology, 14(1), 37-46. http://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2021.0016.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B. An extension of Theory of Planned Behavior in predicting intention to reduce plastic use in the Philippines: Cross-sectional and experimental evidence. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 25(3), 406-420. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12504.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B. The differential impact of prescriptive norms in the intergenerational transmission of environmental concern in a non-Western context: Evidence from the Philippines. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 25(3), 449-463. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12508.
  • 2021    Whitmarsh, L., Lorenzoni, I., Aruta, J.J.B., Day, S. Progress in understanding and overcoming barriers to public engagement with climate change. Global Environmental Change, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102403.
  • 2021    Aruta, J.J.B. Connectedness to nature encourages, but materialism hinders, ecological behavior in the Philippines: The higher-order and second-order factors of environmental attitudes as viable mediating pathways. Ecopsychology, 13(2), 114-122. https://doi.org/10.1089/eco.2020.0053
  • 2021    Aruta, J.J.B. The Intergenerational transmission of nature relatedness predicts green purchase intention among Filipino adolescents: Cross-age invariance and the role of social responsibility. Current Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02087-7.

 

Climate Change and Mental Health in the Global South

  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B., Salcedo, S., Guilaran, J. & Guinto, R. The plight and promise of mental health providers in the face of a warming planet: Perspectives and experiences from the Philippines. International Journal of Psychiatry, 34(5), 530-533. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540261.2022.2123701.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B. Ecological grief in Filipino youth. Journal of Loss and Trauma, https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2022.2108204.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B. & Guinto, R. Climate anxiety in the Philippines: Current situation, potential pathways, and ways forward. Journal of Climate Change and Health, 6, 100138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2022.100138
  • 2022    Simon, P., Pakingan, K., Aruta, J.J.B. Measurement of climate change anxiety and its mediating effect between experience of climate change and mitigation actions of Filipino youth. The Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 39(1), 17-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/20590776.2022.2037390.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B. & Guinto, R. Safeguarding youth health in climate-vulnerable countries. The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(22)00029-3.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B. & Simon, P.D. Agenda for addressing climate anxiety in young people in the Philippines. The Lancet Planetary Health, 6(2), e81-e82. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00010-9
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B.  Mental health efforts should pay attention to children and young people in climate-vulnerable countries. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 27(3), 321-322. https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.12549.
  • 2021    Aruta, J.J.B. The quest for mental well-being: Nature connectedness, materialism, and the role of meaning in life in the Philippine context. Current Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01523-y.

 

Mental Health of Vulnerable and Neglected Populations

  • 2023    Aruta, J.J.B. Mental health of hemodialysis patients in the Philippines amid COVID-19 crisis: A call for action. Chronic Illness, https://doi.org/10.1177/17423953231151231.
  • 2022    Almazan, J., Adolfo, C., Albougami, A., & Aruta, J.J.B. An intergrative review of negative emotions of older adults in later life. Nursing Forum, 57(6), 1452-1464. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12785.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B., Salanga, M.G., Pakingan, K., & Mateo, N.J. Blessed are the poor, they shall be more persistent: Meaning in life and persistence among adolescents from low- and high-income regions in the Philippines. Psychological Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-022-00644-z.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B., Maria, A., & Mascarenhas, J. Self-compassion promotes mental help-seeking in older, not in younger, counsellors. Current Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03054-6.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B., Dumaop, D., Policarpio, M., & Aquino, J.B. A measure of stigma in receiving mental help among atheists and agnostics in rural and urban communities in a religious country. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 71, 103083. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2022.103083.
  • 2021    Aruta, J.J.B. The importance of screening tools for stigma in receiving psychological help in rural communities: Evidence from the Philippines. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 66, 102910. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2021.102910.
  • 2021    Aruta, J.J.B., Antazo, B.G., & Paceno, J.L. Self-stigma is associated with depression and anxiety in a collectivistic context: The culturally adaptive role of self-criticism. The Journal of Psychology, 155(2), 238-256. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2021.1876620
  • 2021    Aruta, J.J.B., Antazo, B.G., Briones-Diato, A., Crisostomo, K.A., Canlas, N.F., & Penaranda, G. When does self-criticism lead to depression in collectivistic context. International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling, 43, 76-87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10447-020-09418-6
  • 2019    Aruta, J.J.B., Barretto, I., Shin, Y., & Jang, A. Exploring how power is experienced in a teacher-student relationship in collectivistic context. Psychological Studies, 64(3), 316-331. DOI: 10.1007/s12646-019-00523-0.

 

Mental Health during COVID-19 Crisis

  • 2022    CulturesAruta, J.J.B. Mental health of hemodialysis patients in the Philippines amid COVID-19 crisis
  • 2022    Buchanan, E., Lewis, S…..Aruta, J.J.B. et al. PSACR: The Psychological Science Accelerator's COVID-19 Rapid-Response Dataset. (in press) Nature Scientific Data.
  • 2022    Dorison, C., Lerner, J.,…Aruta, J.J.B., et al. In COVID-19 health messaging, loss framing increases anxiety without concomitant benefits: Experimental evidence from 84 countries. Affective Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-022-00128-3.
  • 2022    Soriano, J.R. & Aruta, J.J.B. Mental health of Filipino older adults with dementia during COVID-19 pandemic: Reflections and viewpoints. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 37(10), 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5811.
  • 2022    Casanova, B., Felix, C., Balingit, N., de Vera, A., Briones, M., Aruta, J.J.B. To give is not always better than to receive: Social support and bidimensional mental health among teachers during COVID-19 crisis. International Journal of School and Educational Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1080/21683603.2022.2105998.
  • 2022    Pavlovic, T. Azebedo, F.,….Aruta, J.J.B., et al. Predicting attitudinal and behavioral responses to COVID-19 pandemic using machine learning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac093.
  • 2022    Legate, N. Nguyen, T.,…Aruta, J.J.B. et al. A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(22), e2111091119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2111091119
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B. Treatment of selective mutism during the COVID-19 pandemic: Insights from practice. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00207640221102728.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B., Crisostomo, K., Canlas, N., Almazan, J., & Penaranda, G. Measurement and community antecedents of positive mental health among the survivors of Typhoons Vamco and Goni during the COVID-19 crisis in the Philippines. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 72, 102853. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.102853
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B., Almazan, J., Alamri, M.S., Adolfo, C.S., & Gonzales, F. Validating the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale among nurses working in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Current Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-02828-2.
  • 2022    Simon, P. & Aruta, J.J.B. Addressing pandemic fatigue in the Philippines: Recommendations and proposed solutions. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 34(2-3), 308-309. https://doi.org/10.1177/10105395211053919
  • 2022    David, A. & Aruta, J.J.B. Modelling Filipino teachers’ intention to use technology: A MIMIC approach. Educational Media International, 51(1), 62-79. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523987.2022.2054114.
  • 2022    van Bavel, J., Boggio, P.,… Aruta, J.J.B., et al. National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic. Nature Communications, 13, 517. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27668-9
  • 2022    Sawicki, A., Żemojtel-Piotrowska, M., Balcerowska, J., Sawicka, M.,…Aruta, J.J.B., et al. The Fear of COVID-19 Scale: Its structure and measurement invariance across 48 countries. Psychological Assessment, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pas0001102.
  • 2022    Bulisig, J. & Aruta, J.J.B. Measurement and predictors of mental well-being in Filipinos during COVID-19 crisis: Does religious coping matter? Mental Health, Religion & Culture, https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2022.2031939.
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B. & Montes, L. The two sides of the COVID-19 pandemic: The importance of a balanced perspective in addressing mental health problems. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 34(1), 151-152. https://doi.org/10.1177/10105395211051847
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B., Callueng, C., Antazo, B.G., & Ballada, C.J. The role of psychological distress on the link between socio-ecological factors and quality of life of Filipinos during COVID-19 crisis. Journal of Community Psychology, 50(20), 712-726. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22668
  • 2022    Aruta, J.J.B. Socio-ecological determinants of distress in Filipino adults during COVID-19 crisis. Current Psychology, 41(11), 7482-7492. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01322-x.
  • 2022    Galanza, M., Aruta, J.J.B., Mateo, N.J., Resurreccion, R., & Bernardo, A.B.I. Mental health of Filipino university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: The distinct associations of fear of COVID-19 and financial difficulties. The Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 40(1), 125-130. https://doi.org/10.1080/20590776.2021.1999168.
  • 2021    Ballada, C.J., Aruta, J.J.B., Callueng, C…. et al. Bouncing back from COVID-19: Individual and ecological factors influence national resilience in adults from Israel, the Philippines, and Brazil. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 32(3), 452-475. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2569.
  • 2021    Aruta, J.J.B., Balingit, N.D., & de Vera, A.M. Who are vulnerable to mental health concerns amid COVID-19 pandemic? Follow-up evidence on Philippine teachers. Journal of Loss and Trauma, https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2021.1975976.
  • 2021    Kimhi, S., Adini, B…Aruta, J.J.B., et al. Distress and resilience in days of COVID-19: International study of samples from Israel, Brazil, and the Philippines. Cross-Cultural Research, 55(5), 415-437. https://doi.org/10.1177/10693971211026806
  • 2020    Callueng, C., Aruta, J.J.B., Antazo, B, & Diato, A. Measurement and antecedents of national resilience in Filipino adults during Coronavirus crisis. Journal of Community Psychology, 48(8), 2608-2624. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22438

     

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