Factors Influencing Preparedness Behavior for Different Lead Time Disasters

Abstract This study addresses the existing research gap regarding the factors influencing individuals' disaster preparedness for different types of disasters. Specifically, it focuses on the impact of self-efficacy, disaster experience, and information access on disaster preparedness for both long and short lead time disasters. Several models developed based on 3031 responses from the 2017 National Household Survey in the U.S were employed to test the hypotheses. The results showed that individuals are more inclined to prepare for short lead time disasters compared to long lead time disasters. Higher levels of self-efficacy were found to be crucial for disaster preparedness under both disaster scenarios. Additionally, individuals with prior disaster experience exhibited a reduced preparedness gap between the two types of disasters. It was also observed that varying levels of self-efficacy among individuals lead to inconsistent responses to disaster preparedness information, and statistically significant differences were only found for short lead time disasters. These findings have significant implications for the development of targeted preparedness policies for different disaster types, as well as the refinement of population segmentation strategies to enhance pre-disaster education, planning, personal preparedness, and community resilience.