Development of a Scale for Disaster-Prevention Consciousness – Structure of Disaster-Prevention Consciousness of Those Who Lack Expertise in Disaster Prevention

Despite the necessity of improving disaster-prevention consciousness, there are no studies on the definition of disaster-prevention consciousness. Several scales have been developed for the measurement of disaster-prevention consciousness, but some problems are rec-ognized. For example, such scale measures do not consider disaster-prevention consciousness but the knowledge and behavior related to disaster prevention. For this problem, Ozeki et al. specify the operational definition of disaster-prevention consciousness and pro-pose the model of disaster-prevention consciousness based on an interview survey of experts [1]. In this study, the question items are formulated from the con-cepts extracted based on the results of Ozeki et al., and factor analysis is conducted not by targeting the par-ticular region and attribute, but by using the answers from the monitors of an internet survey company. As a result, 5 factors are extracted, namely “imagination of damage situation,” “sense of crisis to current measures against disaster,” “other-directedness,” “anxiety,” and “indifference to disaster prevention.” These factors are correlated with each scaled score in the previous studies. There remain some problems; however, the first step has been taken for the development of a new scale for disaster-prevention consciousness which or-dinary citizens could use regardless of the kind of dis-aster.