Understanding preparedness behaviors in the context of previous models
We find that protective response costs (e.g., knowledge, money, time) and perceived response-efficacy fail to emerge as overwhelming barriers to preparedness behavior adoption. A third of respondents indicate that a lack of hazard knowledge prevents them from preparing and a quarter indicate that cost, time commitment, or a lack of preparedness knowledge influences their choices. Barely seven percent of respondents state that low response-efficacy beliefs (“items will not help me protect myself”) prevent them from preparing further.
Perceived self-efficacy and ascription of responsibility are less readily recognized as barriers by respondents but significantly affect actual preparedness levels. The vast majority of respondents believe that a reliance on others for assistance does not reduce their preparedness behaviors (Table 2). Overall, 68% of respondents disagree with the idea that a reliance on their neighbors or other community members for supplies and assistance during a hazard event reduces their preparedness. Similarly, 83% feel that a reliance on emergency services for supplies and assistance does not hinder their own preparedness. Yet, correlations show a significant decrease in the adoption of preparedness actions among respondents who ascribe greater responsibility for their safety to others and a significant increase in preparedness among respondents who express high self-efficacy and personal responsibility (Tables 3 and 4).
The following discussion opens by describing our findings regarding perceived response-efficacy and protective response costs in the context of previous studies. Although perceived response-efficacy and protective response costs are components of both PMT and PADM, PADM measures perceived response-efficacy in three ways–efficacy for protecting persons, efficacy for protecting property, and utility for other purposes. We specifically consider response-efficacy in terms of efficacy for protecting persons in the present study. As such, perceived response-efficacy in the following discussion refers exclusively to efficacy for protecting persons. This section closes with a discussion of findings related to perceived self-efficacy and ascription of responsibility beliefs.
Perceived response-efficacy and protective response costs
Lindell and colleagues examine the adoption of hazard adjustments (i.e., preparedness behaviors) among people living at risk from seismic (Lindell and Whitney 2000; Lindell and Prater 2002) and flood hazards (Terpstra and Lindell 2012). Lindell and Whitney assess data from university students in Los Angeles, Lindell and Prater focus on residents of three cities in California and three in western Washington, and Terpstra and Lindell study residents of coastal and riverine floodplains in the Netherlands. All three studies ask respondents to rate the hazard- and response-related attributes for various hazard adjustments, and Terpstra and Lindell ask respondents to indicate which attributes are important in their decision-making.
These three studies (Lindell and Whitney 2000; Lindell and Prater 2002; Terpstra and Lindell 2012) find that perceived response-efficacy significantly and positively influences the adoption of preparedness intentions and behaviors. Additionally, Terpstra and Lindell find that 76% of respondents cite efficacy for protecting persons as the “most important” attribute they considered when making preparedness decisions. Given this link between high perceived response-efficacy, one might expect that the failure to adopt certain preparedness measures would stem from low perceived response-efficacy. However, when considering a list of recommended preparedness behaviors, we find that only 7% of Skagit Valley respondents believe the “items will not help me protect myself” and that this belief prevents them from preparing further. The vast majority (71%) of respondents disagree with the idea that low perceived efficacy associated with these items prevents them from preparing. In other words, most respondents indicate that their reason for not adopting additional recommended preparedness behaviors does not stem from a belief that these behaviors will prove ineffective in the face of a natural hazard event.
Previous findings (Lindell and Whitney 2000; Lindell and Prater 2002; Terpstra and Lindell 2012) demonstrate that high perceived response-efficacy is helpful, perhaps necessary, for motivating the adoption of hazard adjustments. However, the present study’s findings suggest that high response-efficacy alone may not be sufficient to motivate preparedness actions. To test this hypothesis, future studies should aim to better constrain the difference between individuals who (1) believe preparedness behaviors to be highly effective and choose to prepare and (2) believe the behaviors are effective but still fail to prepare. Such studies could help identify factors that moderate the influence of response-efficacy.
With regard to perceived protective response costs, our results align with those of Lindell and Whitney (2000), Lindell and Prater (2002), and Terpstra and Lindell (2012) where comparable concepts exist. We find that perceived protective response costs fail to affect preparedness behaviors for all but a small group of respondents. In the present study, around a quarter of respondents cite a lack of money (26%), time (23%), or preparedness knowledge (28%) as barriers to preparedness. Terpstra and Lindell similarly find that few respondents consider cost (24%), time and effort (34%), and knowledge and skills (36%) important when making preparedness decisions. A lack of hazard knowledge also emerges as barrier in the present study for 35% of respondents, but this concept does not correspond to any resource-related attributes in PADM. For some, an actual or perceived lack of resources influences their preparedness decisions, but to say that perceptions of protective response costs drive preparedness behaviors would be an overstatement.
Treating money, time, and knowledge as necessary resources for adopting preparedness actions raises the question of whether these function as perceived or actual barriers. Paton (2003), in the development of his social-cognitive preparation model (later renamed Critical Awareness Model), notes a distinction between intention and action. Paton describes how an individual’s intention to prepare is mediated by factors such as a lack of resources. Grothmann and Reusswig (2006) likewise point to PMT’s ability to distinguish between perceived and actual barriers. The former operate in the coping appraisal process and prevent the formulation of an intention to prepare, whereas the latter work on protection motivation, stopping the translation of these intentions into actions. Herein, we do not distinguish between the two because we do not differentiate between barriers in the intention formulation and behavior initiation phases.
The importance of distinguishing between actual and perceived barriers is evident when considering monetary barriers. For respondents from higher income brackets, the monetary expense associated with preparing may represent a perceived protective response cost rather than an actual lack of resources. These individuals may believe that the costs outweigh the potential benefits of preparing. In contrast, others may understand the benefits of preparing and desire to adopt preparedness measures but lack the necessary resources to do so. In this case, cost becomes an actual barrier. Yet, regardless of the distinction between perceived and actual costs, our results and those of Terpstra and Lindell (2012) indicate that perceived costs do not pose a barrier for the majority of respondents.
Another potentially important difference between our study and those of Lindell and colleagues (Lindell and Whitney 2000; Lindell and Prater 2002; Terpstra and Lindell 2012), which is applicable to the discussion of both perceived response-efficacy and protective response costs, deals with the operationalization of attribute and barrier ratings. The present study asks respondents to rate the extent to which various factors (i.e., barriers) prevent them from preparing items on a commonly recommended checklist of emergency supply items, emergency planning activities, and information seeking activities. Lindell and Whitney, Lindell and Prater, and Terpstra and Lindell ask this question in greater detail: the first two studies ask respondents to rate the hazard- and resource-related attributes associated with individual adjustments and the third study requests these ratings for adjustments grouped based on their purpose (e.g., emergency kits, hazard information, emergency plans). Our study presents results based on a still coarser grouping of preparedness measures. This raises questions as to how variations in the number of items under consideration could affect respondents’ ratings of perceived response-efficacy and protective response costs.
Perceived self-efficacy
Our finding that perceived self-efficacy positively motivates preparedness behaviors agrees with the long-standing and extensive research into self-efficacy’s influence on intention and behavior motivation (Bandura 1997 and references therein). Evidence supporting self-efficacy’s role in behavior motivation has led to the inclusion of self-efficacy and related concepts as variables in numerous behavior motivation theories, including the Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura 1997), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB; Ajzen 1991), Critical Awareness Theory (Paton 2003; Paton et al. 2005), and PMT (Maddux and Rogers 1983). Meta-analytic studies evaluating TPB (Godin and Kok 1996; Armitage and Conner 2001) and PMT (Floyd et al. 2000) highlight the broad support for perceived self-efficacy as a predictor of behavior. Thus, our findings further reinforce the need to include perceived self-efficacy measures in PMT, other behavior motivation theories, and future preparedness motivation studies.
Ascription of responsibility
Our findings demonstrate the importance of including ascription of responsibility measures when evaluating preparedness intentions and behaviors. Results indicate that ascription of responsibility to self correlates with higher preparedness levels, whereas ascription of responsibility to others correlates with lower preparedness levels. Our findings agree with those of previous studies related to the adoption of seismic hazard adjustments (Lindell and Whitney 2000; Lindell and Perry 2000; Arlikatti et al. 2007). These studies find significant positive correlations between feelings of personal responsibility and preparedness behaviors among university students in Los Angeles (Lindell and Whitney 2000) and California and Washington residents (Arlikatti et al. 2007).
The results of the present study support the argument that, after becoming aware of a hazard’s consequences, a feeling of responsibility for preventing said consequences is necessary to motivate an individual to act (Stern et al. 1999; Stern 2000; Slimak and Dietz 2006). These results agree with Paton (2003) and Wachinger et al.’s (2013) argument: when individuals transfer responsibility for their safety to others, preparedness suffers. In such cases, individuals fail to recognize their personal agency in the preparedness and response process. Wachinger et al. attribute such shifts to excessive trust in officials and the mistaken exaggeration of their abilities.
VBN theory’s ascription of responsibility represents an important variable not fully accounted for within PMT’s current structure. Perceived self-efficacy represents the component of PMT that most closely resembles the ascription of responsibility variable; however, the two concepts are distinct. Self-efficacy deals specifically with the question of, “am I able to respond effectively?” whereas ascription of responsibility asks, “am I responsible for responding?” The failure of respondents to recognize the significance of this variable (Table 2) serves to highlight the need for incorporating ascription of responsibility measures into protective behavior motivation studies. This is further reinforced by Lindell and Perry’s (2012) inclusion of protective responsibility perceptions within the social stakeholder perceptions component of PADM in a recent modification of the model.
Professional participation’s influence on household preparedness & personal beliefs
Professional participation appears to improve information seeking habits, confidence in officials, and self-efficacy. Yet, response professionals largely mirror laypeople in terms of their household preparedness levels, ascription of responsibility beliefs, and ability to read and interpret hazard maps. These results indicate that differences exist in how public and professional participation affect an individual’s preparedness behaviors and personal beliefs. This raises the question: why do both types of participation positively affect information seeking behavior, confidence in officials, and self-efficacy, while only public participation positively influences household preparedness, knowledge, and ascription of responsibility?
Self-efficacy and confidence in officials appear to improve regardless of the type of participation (e.g., public or professional) in which an individual engages. Wachinger et al. (2013) posit that an individual’s self-efficacy and confidence in officials improve as they interact more with emergency officials. Both public and professional participation facilitates such interaction. The former increases interactions between the public and officials, while the latter increases interactions among officials. Additionally, it seems logical that response professionals foster higher self-efficacy–the belief in their ability to prepare and respond to hazards effectively–since they elected to pursue careers where their abilities are constantly tested.
Regarding ascription of responsibility, Wachinger et al. (2013) highlight the role that participation in hazard management could play in helping people take greater responsibility for their own safety. Wachinger et al. note that interactions with officials help the public gain a more realistic understanding of their own abilities and the abilities of officials. Members of the public become better acquainted with the measures they can take to prepare, as well as what officials will expect them to bear personal responsibility for during an event. Similarly, Paton et al. (2008) emphasize the need for officials to “empower” the public to take personal responsibility for their safety. Given this emphasis on public participation’s positive influence on personal responsibility, the similarity between the ascription of responsibility beliefs of response professionals and laypeople in our study seems to contradict expectations. However, it is important to note that laypeople in the Skagit Valley already feel primarily responsible for their own safety. With 95% of laypeople already claiming that they are responsible for their own safety, there is not much room for improvement among the response professional community.
In terms of household preparedness, response professionals appear better prepared than laypeople based on their average CP score, but a closer analysis of indicator scores reveals that response professionals are only significantly more prepared in the action indicator category. This difference results because more response professionals have someone in their family who knows first aid and are aware of vulnerable people living in their community. Both of these recommended preparedness actions are strongly tied to professional responsibilities, particularly for first responders and hospital administrators. Thus, it may be more reasonable to attribute increases in these two measures to occupational requirements rather than voluntary preparedness behaviors induced by participation in response planning. All other variations in preparedness of individual measures are minor or not significant. This fact is emphasized by the lack of statistically significant differences in the average planning and supplies indicator scores.
The lack of improvement in household preparedness among response professional respondents may originate because public and professional participation in hazard management represent fundamentally different types of participation. While both aim to improve overall community preparedness and hazard response capabilities, each takes a different approach with separate objectives. Public participation programs tend to be geared toward improving household preparedness or ensuring that hazard plans align with community values. In contrast, trainings for response professionals might only discuss household preparedness as a minor component of a program largely focused on occupational responsibilities for whole community preparedness and response.
For example, one way the public participates in hazard management in the Skagit Valley is through the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). CERT training teaches individuals about relevant local hazards, preparedness options, and basic disaster response skills (e.g., fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations; Federal Emergency Management Agency 2016). Participating individuals are encouraged to get involved in community preparedness projects. Professional participation activities, on the other hand, focus more on developing an individual’s professional competencies-knowledge and skills that allow their organization to respond effectively within the broader emergency management framework. Household preparedness may increase among the public because participation programs specifically and strongly emphasize how an individual can protect their home and family.
Although response professionals may be acquainted with recommended household preparedness measures, they may still fail to adopt these measures at home. For many response professionals, household preparedness measures do not directly benefit them because they are actively responding to a hazard. However, preparedness measures can help their families, and public health professionals admit that one of their primary concerns during a hazard event is the protection of their family (Slepski 2007). Such concerns can cause distraction or even prevent response professionals from reporting for work (Blessman et al. 2007). Thus, rather than focusing training programs on what to prepare and why, training should focus on how household preparedness can specifically benefit response professionals. Training programs should take a ‘whole community’ approach–emphasizing how household preparedness protects family members, helps response professionals better perform their job duties, and strengthens the whole community. Additionally, we agree with Blessman et al. (2007) recommendation to focus on providing response professionals with small, easily accomplishable steps.
The fact that response professionals and laypeople foster similar household preparedness levels has implications for previous studies of response professionals. The low levels of preparedness previously found among public health employees (Blessman et al. 2007; Rebmann et al. 2013) and first responders (Federal Emergency Management Agency 2016) may be indicative of low levels of preparedness among the public in general. A more representative survey examining a random sample of response professionals and the general public would be necessary to confirm this argument.
Additionally, questions remain regarding the generalizability of these findings, especially given the discrepancy between the expected and demonstrated influence of professional participation on household preparedness. We combined a variety of professions into the group “response professionals,” but the type of participation performed by a first responder may differ substantially from that of a utilities, school, or hospital administrator. By more narrowly defining the “response professionals” category, future studies could determine how well these findings characterize response professionals in general versus subgroups based on specific characteristics of participation (e.g., occupation type, length of involvement, or types of trainings attended). We also lack demographic data on response professionals in the Skagit Valley with which to compare the demographics of survey participants. However, given the tendency to sample more engaged participants with convenience samples, we might expect responses from response professionals to actually overestimate the effects of participation on preparedness.
Advantages and disadvantages of survey methodology
Several limitations stem from the sampling method employed. First, a convenience sample lacks randomness; thus, selection bias may affect the sample, reducing the generalizability of the results. Since a response rate cannot be determined with this method, we cannot account for an individual’s inherent interest or willingness to participate. Second, the questionnaire was only available in English, which limited the participation of non-native English speakers, particularly among the Spanish-speaking population. In Skagit County, 5.1% of the adult (18+) population speaks Spanish or Spanish Creole at home (U. S. Census Bureau 2015). Thus, the survey responses likely underrepresent the views of Spanish-speaking residents. Third, using an online platform limited the number of responses from those without access to a computer or sufficient computer literacy to navigate the questionnaire. The accessibility of the survey tool limited responses from the elderly and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
The influence of socio-economic status on response rate is of particular concern in the Skagit Valley, especially among the smaller upstream communities that are most at-risk from lahars. Except Lyman, all of the towns we examine are characterized by lower median household incomes and higher percentages of people living below the poverty level than Washington in general (U.S. Census Bureau 2015). Washington’s median household income is $60,294, but in La Conner, Mount Vernon, Burlington, Sedro-Woolley, Hamilton, and Concrete, median household incomes ranges from $33,977 to $48,399. The percentage of people 18 or older living below the poverty level in Washington is 12.2% but ranges from 14.7% to 33.8% in these six towns. Concrete and Hamilton are closest to the volcanoes and the most threatened by lahars. In these two towns, 28.2% and 33.8% of adult residents live below the poverty level, respectively. The unique socio-economic status of Skagit Valley residents presents difficulties for conducting an online survey given the possibility of reduced computer access in lower income households. Respondent demographics (Table 1) also confirm reduced response rates (-7%) among people with household incomes below $50,000. Such biases could be avoided in the future by using or offering an option for requesting a physical questionnaire.
Although limitations exist, using an online questionnaire with a convenience sampling survey design provided an inexpensive, straight-forward, and relatively rapid means of collecting responses. This method was consistent with previous risk perception and preparedness studies (e.g., Siegrist and Cvetkovich 2000; Bird et al.
2010). While nonrandom sampling limits the ability to extrapolate trends to the broader population, such surveys still provide valuable information on perception and preparedness among the surveyed population. Identified trends demonstrate risk perception and preparedness levels among a portion of the community and may be indicative of broader trends that a future randomized sample survey could investigate.
Additional theoretical and practical implications
From this work, a number of additional theoretical implications arise for future research into preparedness barriers and the benefits of hazard management participation. Our use of respondent opinions in evaluating preparedness barriers reveals the need to refine these questions in terms of framing and format. When asking respondents to indicate the degree to which different factors prevented them from preparing, we framed each option as a potential barrier. In contrast, Terpstra and Lindell (2012) asked respondents which factors were most important in their preparedness decision-making. Their framing did not assume these factors were barriers or promoters of preparedness, but simply factors influencing decisions.
In terms of format, our study expanded upon Terpstra and Lindell’s (2012) use of a dichotomous variable to assess importance. We allowed respondents to express a range of support for different barriers using an ordinal scale. Based on these ratings, we were able to construct a relative ranking of barrier importance. In addition to using an ordinal design, we recommend that future studies allow respondents to rank the relative importance of each barrier or hazard adjustment attribute to provide even greater insight into respondents’ thoughts.
This research highlights the need for incorporating independent or indirect measures of barrier variables for comparison with preparedness behaviors. By including additional questions assessing perceived self-efficacy and ascription of responsibility, we were able to note contradictions between correlations and expressed opinions. Lindell and Whitney (2000), Lindell and Prater (2002), and Terpstra and Lindell (2012) also apply indirect measures of the importance of hazard adjustment attributes. They calculate correlations of attribute ratings for different adjustments with adoption intention and actual adoption. Future studies should similarly allow respondents to express their opinions regarding what motivates their preparedness choices and include corresponding independent measures to compare with preparedness levels. Including both measures provides insight into respondents’ perceptions of barriers as well as actual correlations with behavior.
In terms of knowledge assessment, a third of the respondents who are aware that volcanic hazards exist in the Skagit Valley still indicate that a lack of hazard knowledge prevents them from preparing. This highlights the need to identify what specific knowledge respondents feel they are missing. A general awareness that volcanic hazards exist may feel insufficient. Respondents need to understand what a hazardous event will mean for them personally because understanding the personal impacts of a hazard influences preparedness motivation (Lindell and Perry 2012). People also need to know where to access hazard information. Nearly 23% of the survey population found that current information was difficult to find or understand and 29% felt information was easy to find but unclear. Paton et al. (2008) emphasize that providing information consistent with population needs, values, and beliefs helps emergency managers strengthen trust, reduce uncertainty, and improve the acceptance of information. By determining what specific information the public lacks and desires, as well as how best to present this information, emergency managers can better tailor educational efforts to ensure that the messages and information disseminated are appropriate for their community.
Finally, our results underscore the need for more detailed studies of hazard knowledge, risk perception, and preparedness among the response professional community. Studying response professionals is important because they play a significant role in the success of hazard response efforts and can act as role-models for the broader community. Training programs often introduce response professionals to the concept of household preparedness, yet to date, the household preparedness behaviors and personal beliefs of response professionals remain largely unstudied. Increased program evaluation would provide a clearer understanding of whether or not professional training translates into household readiness. Additionally, comparative studies of response professionals and the general public could offer a means of measuring the success of training programs and provide a more extensive understanding of whole community preparedness.
Furthermore, analyses based on occupation could identify different types of professional participation and how each influences household preparedness and personal beliefs. Such studies could isolate elements shared between the most effective training programs within and across professional boundaries. The goal of these efforts being to increase household preparedness and reduce possible distractions facing response professionals. If response professionals feel confident in the safety of their families, they can feel comfortable responding, which ultimately benefits the whole community. Overall, the results presented here reveal the important role that participation type plays in determining household preparedness actions.
In terms of practical implications, the findings presented herein will be provided to local and state emergency managers to assist in the development of improved public education programs, professional training programs, and response plans. We support the recommendation of Paton et al. (2008) that emergency managers should strive to empower the public. Managers should help individuals recognize their own agency during hazard events and improve their self-efficacy, both of which clearly and positively influence preparedness behaviors. Hazard management participation efforts should also be expanded given the positive impact that participation appears to have on self-efficacy and feelings of responsibility, impacts which do not appear to be tied to specific types of participation. For response professionals, household preparedness measures should be presented as small, easily achievable steps that will benefit their family and help them better perform their response duties. Further research could also explore the opportunities that enhanced school-based hazard education and its links to community-based public education offer as a way to increase community empowerment and participation in preparedness activities (Johnson et al. 2016; Ronan et al. 2016).
This research will be shared with the Cascade Volcano Observatory (CVO) as well. The CVO’s input in the design of the survey questionnaire ensured the collection of information relevant to their design of volcanic hazard maps. The current hazard maps successfully communicate the main details of the hazard, but more nuanced elements are not as easily conveyed.