Evaluations of disaster education programs for children: A methodological review

Communicating with children and adolescents about the risk of natural disasters

“…However, an evaluation of Save the Children’s Ready and Resilient programme found that about half of the participants reported increased worry about the disasters after the programme. The authors did however conclude that this result could not be interpreted as either a positive or a negative outcome, since anxiety has been associated with a higher coping potential and household preparedness (Blanchet-Cohen & Nelems, as cited in Johnson et al, 2014). …”

“…Contemporary research in risk communication has found that the relationship between knowledge of preparedness strategies and preparedness actions is not necessarily very strong. Education programmes might contribute to a change in awareness and attitudes towards risk, but this does not necessarily mean that people’s behaviour actually changes (Jacobs, Sisco, Hill, Malter, & Figueredo, 2012; Johnson, Ronan, Johnston, & Peace, 2014). Furthermore, the effects evaluated are only short-term effects, and little is known about the long-term effects of disaster education (Ronan, Alisic, Towers, Johnson, & Johnston, 2015).…”

“…According to a review of Johnson et al (2014), several studies have aimed to measure the emotional impacts of disaster education programmes on children. The results were somewhat mixed.…”

“…It is not clear if and how age, gender and ethnicity influence preparedness and risk perceptions (Johnson et al, 2014). Some studies suggest that there is a link between prior disaster experience and risk perceptions (Halpern-Felsher et al, 2001; Johnson et al, 2014), whereas other studies do not find a significant effect of disaster experience on respondents’ disaster knowledge (Johnson et al, 2014). …”

“…It is recommended that parents should not avoid difficult topics or uncomfortable conversations, but rather listen to their children, reassure them and correct any misunderstandings they might have (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2014). Children’s engagement with parents both facilitates knowledge transfer from children to parent, and improves the quality of children’s learning (Codreanu et al, 2014; Johnson et al, 2014). Moreover, research has found that increased interaction between children and parents in hazards education programmes predicts readiness at home, measured in increased number of hazard adjustments (Ronan & Johnston, 2003).…”