Citation

Beatson R, McLennan J. Aust. Psychol. 2011; 46(3): 171-182.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Australian Psychological Society, Publisher Wiley-Blackwell)

DOI

10.1111/j.1742-9544.2011.00041.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

From 1900 to 2008, bushfires in Australia claimed 552 lives. Partly in response to disastrous fires in 1967 and 1983, a national community bushfire safety policy emerged, summarised as "prepare, stay and defend, or leave early." On 7 February 2009, "Black Saturday," Victoria experienced Australia's worst-ever day of bushfires: 173 people died as a result and more than 2,000 homes were destroyed. Three investigations in the aftermath of the fires indicated significant shortcomings in the effectiveness of current approaches to community bushfire safety generally. We examine whether application of social psychological theories from the fields of health promotion and injury prevention might play a role in improving community bushfire safety. We review four theoretical approaches: the theory of planned behaviour, the extended protection motivation theory, the extended parallel process model, and the terror management health model. We conclude that there is good evidence supporting the general utility of each of these theories as predictive of health-promoting behaviour. Furthermore, there are sound reasons to conclude that they hold promise for addressing important problematic issues in community bushfire safety practice.

Language: en

Keywords

bushfire; community safety; health models; wildfire