Page 242 - RUICHSS 2023 Proceeding

University of Ruhuna ISSN: 2706-0063
Matara, Sri Lanka

Note: The symbols *, **, and *** represents 10%, 5%, and 1% significance

level, respectively. Parentheses represent the robust standard error.
The results of quadratic polynomial regression in Table 3 present the impact

of urbanisation on mental disorders in the SAARC countries. The results show

the period between 1990 to 2019 of both variables.

According to the results of polynomial regression, Sri Lanka shows the highest
coefficient of 202.72, which means when urbanisation increases by 1% the

mental disorder will be increased by 202.72%. The lowest positive coefficient

is shown in Maldives (0.35), which indicates when urbanisation increases by
1% mental disorders increase by 0.35%. This negative impact might be caused

by stress, environmental pollution, and noise arising from higher population
densities reported within urban areas, being born, or most of the childhood

spent within urban areas (Turan & Besirli, 2008). Furthermore, as support to
such a positive impact, Minas et al. (2017) indicate that, after the Tsunami and

terrorist attack, mental disorders increased, and a focus was given to

improving psychiatric hospitals and small inpatient units in rural Sri Lanka.
Thereby, it shows during the terrorist attack the people must have gone

through mental trauma and mental disorders. These can be the reason for

getting the highest coefficient in Sri Lanka since the people have gone through
mental instabilities and stressful lives due to natural disasters and terrorist

attacks. Due to the non-linearity of the impact, there exists a point that the
effect reaches its maximum in those countries, as shown in Figure 1. Later, the

2
significant negative coefficient for URB implies that urbanisation's impact on
mental disorders eventually decreases in Maldives and Sri Lanka. Such a
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