Using the Theory of Planning Behaviour to Increase Individual-Level Disaster Preparedness Among Citizens of Wellington

New Zealand is prone to a range of natural hazards such as earthquakes and tsunamis, but many citizens are unprepared for potential disasters. Encouraging actions to reduce the impact of a hazard and to help individuals survive after a disaster has occurred is of significant importance. This research examines how attitudes, such as outcome expectancy, social norms, including descriptive and injunctive, and perceptions of behavioural control, such as self-efficacy, motivate individuals' disaster preparation. The Theory of Planned Behaviour has been used to both predict behaviour and inform behaviour-change interventions in other domains such as health and environmentalism, but the application of the theory to disaster preparation is limited. This research will test the predictive capability of the theory, and use these findings to design a behavioural intervention to encourage disaster preparation actions within the Wellington hazard context