Citation

Yong AG, Lemyre L, Pinsent C, Krewski D. Risk Anal. 2017; 37(12): 2321-2333.

Affiliation

McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Society for Risk Analysis, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/risa.12797

PMID

28314086

Abstract

Research has documented that immigrants tend to experience more negative consequences from natural disasters compared to native-born individuals, although research on how immigrants perceive and respond to natural disaster risks is sparse. We investigated how risk perception and disaster preparedness for natural disasters in immigrants compared to Canadian-born individuals as justifications for culturally-adapted risk communication and management. To this end, we analyzed the ratings on natural disaster risk perception beliefs and preparedness behaviors from a nationally representative survey (N = 1,089). Factor analyses revealed three underlying psychological dimensions of risk perception: external responsibility for disaster management, self-preparedness responsibility, and illusiveness of preparedness. Although immigrants and Canadian-born individuals shared the three-factor structure, there were differences in the salience of five risk perception beliefs. Despite these differences, immigrants and Canadian-born individuals were similar in the level of risk perception dimensions and disaster preparedness. Regression analyses revealed self-preparedness responsibility and external responsibility for disaster management positively predicted disaster preparedness whereas illusiveness of preparedness negatively predicted disaster preparedness in both groups. Our results showed that immigrants' risk perception and disaster preparedness were comparable to their Canadian-born counterparts. That is, immigrant status did not necessarily yield differences in risk perception and disaster preparedness. These social groups may benefit from a risk communication and management strategy that addresses these risk perception dimensions to increase disaster preparedness. Given the diversity of the immigrant population, the model remains to be tested by further population segmentation.

© 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

Language: en

Keywords

Canada; disaster preparedness; immigrants; natural disasters; risk perception