Climate change is expected to disproportionately affect farmers by further exacerbating the risks that they face. These risks have a huge negative impact on their livelihood. However, mounting evidence has revealed that farmers can effectively manage this negative impact by adapting their farming practices to climate change. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the farmers' ongoing adaptation measures, and to identify factors that influence their choice of adaptation methods in wheat production in the Kermanshah district in Western Iran. A sample of 350 farmers living in this region was selected through a multi-stage stratified and random sampling method. Principal component analysis revealed that three components play a role in the farmers' decisions on adaptation methods, namely, farm production practices, farm financial management, and government programs and insurance. The relative influence of the factors listed under each of the three components was assessed using a multiple linear regression analysis. Our analysis showed that these factors accounted for 50%, 25%, and 40% of the adaptation responses analyzed, respectively. In sum, our findings yield recommendations for agriculture extension and risk communication strategies that could promote adaptation behavior among Iranian farmers.

Social distancing as a health-related behavior during epidemics and pandemics, can significantly influence their control. In this regard, the identification of the factors influencing behavior change can play a remarkable role in assessing for how behaviors form. This paper is an attempt to show that the extended theory of planned behavior can provide a useful theoretical framework for explaining social distancing in the face of a contagion disease. The results showed that the constructs of attitude, descriptive norms, perceived behavioral control, and self-efficacy significantly influenced the students’ intention to adhere to social distancing in the form of university closure. Among these constructs, self-efficacy was found to be the main predictor of the students’ intention. Interestingly, the research revealed that injunctive norms were not a significant predictor of the students’ intention. Practically, this study is a justification for the use of attitude, descriptive norms, perceived behavioral control, and self-efficacy in planning and decision-making for encouraging students to adhere to social distancing during epidemics and pandemics, like the COVID-19 pandemic. The extended theory of planned behavior is useful in understanding Iranian College Students’ Intention toward Social Distancing in COVID-19 Pandemic.