Transcript – Online Local Natural Hazards Education for Young Adults: Assessing Program Efficacy and Changes in Risk Perception

Hi, my name is Dr. Courtney Thompson in the Department of Geography, and I am presenting the online local Natural Hazards Education for young adults, assessing program efficacy and changes in risk perception T3 project. Natural Hazards Education programs provide knowledge and control during and after a disaster event, particularly for vulnerable dependents such as children, adolescents or young adults who typically rely on their parents to make disaster response decisions. Such educational programs can result in stabilized risk perceptions, reduce hazards related fears and increased awareness of appropriate hazard related protective behaviors that children themselves can undertake during such events. However, such curriculum in most secondary schools does not exist, and those that do only cover local hazards in terms of their physical impacts. For this study, we developed a formal, child-centric Natural Hazards and Disasters educational program while investigating how the program influences risk perceptions of local hazards. The results indicate that exposure to the curriculum content improved overall subject matter proficiency and increased risk perception and provided a greater personal coping capacity awareness in participants. Furthermore, gender was identified as a strong and consistent influence on risk, perception and subject matter proficiency. Females tend to score lower than males on the protests and also came into the program feeling less informed about hazards. Whereas at the end of the program, the gender gap in knowledge was observed to close, with both males and females increasing their overall subject matter proficiency scores and female scoring higher overall than males. These findings demonstrate how exposure to a natural hazards educational program can increase hazard awareness and coping capacity in young adults and adolescents.