An intervention to increase earthquake and fire preparedness

Pérez-Fuentes, Gabriela; Joffe, Hélène

doi:10.2495/sd151022

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 56 publications

(83 reference statements)

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“…Besides attitudes, social expectations play an important role: the likelihood of taking precautionary measures for earthquakes increases within a social context that advocates such behavior . Other good predictors of preventive actions are “behavioral intentions, perceived self‐efficacy, collective efficacy, empowerment, perceived outcome expectancy, critical awareness,” and community aspects like a sense of community, participation in community activities, and trust in authorities . However, in general, bridging the gap between attitudes and behavior is challenging …”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating Earthquake Preparedness: The Influence of Induced Mood, Perceived Risk, and Gain or Loss Frames on Homeowners’ Attitudes Toward General Precautionary Measures for Earthquakes

et al. 2017

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Despite global efforts to reduce seismic risk, actual preparedness levels remain universally low. Although earthquake-resistant building design is the most efficient way to decrease potential losses, its application is not a legal requirement across all earthquake-prone countries and even if, often not strictly enforced. Risk communication encouraging homeowners to take precautionary measures is therefore an important means to enhance a country's earthquake resilience. Our study illustrates that specific interactions of mood, perceived risk, and frame type significantly affect homeowners' attitudes toward general precautionary measures for earthquakes. The interdependencies of the variables mood, risk information, and frame type were tested in an experimental 2 × 2 × 2 design (N = 156). Only in combination and not on their own, these variables effectively influence attitudes toward general precautionary measures for earthquakes. The control variables gender, "trait anxiety" index, and alteration of perceived risk adjust the effect. Overall, the group with the strongest attitudes toward general precautionary actions for earthquakes are homeowners with induced negative mood who process high-risk information and gain-framed messages. However, the conditions comprising induced negative mood, low-risk information and loss-frame and induced positive mood, low-risk information and gain-framed messages both also significantly influence homeowners' attitudes toward general precautionary measures for earthquakes. These results mostly confirm previous findings in the field of health communication. For practitioners, our study emphasizes that carefully compiled communication measures are a powerful means to encourage precautionary attitudes among homeowners, especially for those with an elevated perceived risk.

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Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating Earthquake Preparedness: The Influence of Induced Mood, Perceived Risk, and Gain or Loss Frames on Homeowners’ Attitudes Toward General Precautionary Measures for Earthquakes

et al. 2017

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“…Community preparedness for natural hazards remains low across cultures (Ballantyne et al 2000;Lindell and Whitney 2000;Paton 2000), even among those where awareness of the natural hazard risk is high (Joffe et al 2013;Karanci et al 2005;Lindell 2013;Solberg et al 2010) Despite the importance of natural disaster preparedness interventions in reducing personal, social and economic losses, the literature on such interventions is scarce and its methodology is often not well documented (Perez-Fuentes and Joffe 2015). There are a wide range of mass media and internet-based natural disaster preparedness engagement methods, yet their documentation and evaluation are rare (Verrucci et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to increase earthquake and home fire preparedness: the fix-it intervention

et al. 2016

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Published, evaluated community intervention studies concerning natural hazard preparedness are rare. Most lack a rigorous methodology, thereby hampering the development of evidence-based interventions. This paper describes the rationale and methodology of a cross-cultural, longitudinal intervention study on earthquake and home fire preparedness, termed fix-it. The aim is to evaluate whether and how the intervention brings about behaviour change in the targeted communities in two coastal cities with high seismic risk: Seattle, USA and Izmir, Turkey. Participants are adult residents of these cities. The intervention group attends a 6-h workshop, which focuses on securing items in the household. The control group does not attend the workshop. All participants complete baseline and post-intervention, as well as 3-and 12-month follow-up assessments. The primary outcome measure is an observational measure of nine preparedness items for earthquake and fire in participants' homes. This is evaluated alongside participants' self-reports concerning their preparedness levels. Secondary outcomes are changes in levels of self-efficacy, perceived outcome, trust, corruption, empowerment, anxiety and social cohesion. Results from the first of the studies, conducted in Seattle in September 2015, indicate that while the fix-it intervention is effective, in the longer term, multi-hazard preparedness is increased by the mere act of going into people's homes to observe their preparedness levels along with assessing self-reported preparedness and sociopsychological orientation towards natural hazards. This protocol and study aim to augment the empirical literature on natural hazard preparedness, informing 123Nat ) 84:1943-1965 DOI 10.1007/s11069-016-2528 national and international policy on delivery of evidence-based community interventions to promote multi-hazard preparedness in households.

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“…However, the successful translation of these learnings into a visible behavioural shift is unclear. Absolute levels of preparedness in at-risk communities around the world remain low when considering the many recommended actions that can be taken at the individual level (Becker, Paton, Johnston, & Ronan, 2014;Kelly & Ronan, 2018;Perez-Fuentes & Joffe, 2015). While a great number of strategies are used to increase disaster preparedness in campaigns around the world, few of them are documented in detail, evaluated in-depth, or tested to determine their impact on behaviour (Bradley, McFarland, & Clarke, 2014;Joffe, Perez-Fuentes, Potts & Rossetto, 2016).…”

Section: Preparedness Interventions: What Work?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They found no change in preparedness behaviours and concluded that the information campaign did not influence risk reduction behaviours (despite being a key purpose of the campaign). While interventions such as these are low cost and easily scaled to a large population, the body of available evidence has led researchers to conclude that simple informational campaigns are not sufficient to change preparedness behaviours despite their widespread usage (Paton, 2003;Perez-Fuentes & Joffe, 2015).…”

Section: Preparedness Interventions: What Work?mentioning

confidence: 99%

No place like home: The role of place attachment in increasing individual preparedness for natural hazard events

Wallis¹

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<p>New Zealand is exposed to many natural hazards and yet, despite its heightened risk, national rates of individual preparedness remain low. Previous research has shown that place attachment is positively associated with disaster preparedness. My work builds on this research and explores (i) the relationship between place attachment and preparedness intentions and behaviours and (ii) the potential for a place attachment intervention to change preparedness and behaviours. In the first two studies (Chapter 2), I examined 1) participants’ levels of place attachment at different spatial scales, 2) participants’ preparedness (intentions and behaviours), and 3) place attachment as a mediator of previously identified demographic predictors of preparedness. Findings show that place attachment is associated with both preparedness intentions and behaviour when measured simultaneously. When controlling for socio-demographic predictors, participants who reported stronger house and neighbourhood attachment also reported stronger intentions to prepare (Study 1). In Study 2, house attachment was associated with mitigation preparedness behaviour, whereas neighbourhood attachment was associated with community preparedness behaviour. House and neighbourhood attachment mediated the relationship between homeownership, length of residence, and preparedness. These findings suggest that place attachment varies by spatial scale which matters for different types of disaster preparedness. The second set of studies (Chapter 3) consisted of a pilot study with undergraduate students (Study 3) and a two-wave randomised control trial with a community sample (Study 4) to examine whether the use of a place visualisation intervention would strengthen people’s intentions to prepare (at Time 1) and encourage people to implement preparedness behaviours (at Time 2, two weeks later). I developed and implemented a guided place-based visualisation task, which asked participants to visualise a place they feel attached to (their house or in their neighbourhoods) and compared the effectiveness with visualisation of a neutral place. I expected that visualising one’s house or neighbourhood (i.e. a place people feel attached to) would result in stronger intentions to prepare and higher uptake of preparedness behaviours at a two-week follow-up when compared to people who visualised a neutral place. I did not find any meaningful effect of place visualisation on preparedness intentions or behaviours. In Study 5 (Chapter 4), I used qualitative methods to gain a deeper understanding of the quantitative findings. I thematically analysed qualitative data gathered as part of a previous survey (Study 1) to understand people’s relationships to places in more depth and to identify what people think is important about their attachment to places at different spatial scales. I identified six key themes (i.e. social, physical, residential, functional, sentimental, psychological) that were important for place attachment across four different spatial scales. Finally, across two chapters, I further explored my place visualisation intervention and why it may not have been as effective as expected. To this end, I first provided a mixed- methods analysis of how participants engaged with the intervention task (e.g. time spent on the task and number of words written) (Study 6, Chapter 5). Then, I used insights from behaviour change theories (Chapter 6) to discuss the findings from Studies 1-6 as they relate to the advancement of place attachment theory, application to disaster preparedness behaviour-change, and implications for intervention design and implementation. In the final chapter (Chapter 7), I discussed the key findings and implications across the entire thesis and how these can be used to inform theory, practice, and future research directions.</p>

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An intervention to increase earthquake and fire preparedness

Cited by 4 publications

References 56 publications

Communicating Earthquake Preparedness: The Influence of Induced Mood, Perceived Risk, and Gain or Loss Frames on Homeowners’ Attitudes Toward General Precautionary Measures for Earthquakes

Communicating Earthquake Preparedness: The Influence of Induced Mood, Perceived Risk, and Gain or Loss Frames on Homeowners’ Attitudes Toward General Precautionary Measures for Earthquakes

How to increase earthquake and home fire preparedness: the fix-it intervention

No place like home: The role of place attachment in increasing individual preparedness for natural hazard events

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