Children in disasters: the role of household preparedness

Abstract

To increase children’s resilience to disasters, it is important to expand our understanding of what increases their vulnerability. One household factor that has been tied to disaster resilience in general is the extent to which households have prepared themselves. In the context of wildfire preparedness, the current study examined whether households with very young, young, or teenage children differ in the extent to which they prepare their household compared to childless households. A two-wave survey study amongst Australian residents of wildfire-prone areas (Nwave1 = 998, Nwave2 = 514) found that households with young (under twelve years old) and very young (under six years old) children h..