Influence of Environmental Values on the Typhoon Risk Perceptions of High School Students: A Case Study in Ningbo, China

• Published in: Sustainability 2021-04, Vol.13 (8), p.4145
• Main Authors: Yao, Lianying, Shen, Jinchi, Zhang, Fuying, Gu, Xinbing, Jiang, Shuli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Casualties; Climate change; Disaster management; Disaster relief; Disasters; Earthquakes; Economic impact; Education; Emergency preparedness; Environmental factors; Gender; Natural disasters; Perceptions; Post traumatic stress disorder; Risk perception; Secondary school students; Secondary schools; Structural equation modeling; Students; Teenagers; Typhoons
• ISSN: 2071-1050; 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su13084145

Typhoons are a severe form of natural disaster that can impose huge economic losses and casualties on society. High school students are more vulnerable compared with adults during typhoons. Improving risk perceptions of typhoons can help high school students to effectively respond to typhoons and reduce related losses. Environmental values play an important role in human perceptions and actions. Although typhoons are caused by environmental factors, few studies have investigated the influence of environmental factors on typhoon risk perceptions of high school students. This study investigates the typhoon risk perceptions of high school students in Ningbo, China, and further analyzes the influence of environmental values on these perceptions with the structural equations model. The results reveal that environmental values have significantly positive impacts on typhoon risk perceptions. The findings also demonstrate that disaster threats and the disaster management ability of the government have significant positive impacts on typhoon risk perceptions. This study proposes suggestions and measures to improve typhoon risk perceptions among high school students and provides a reference for typhoon prevention and reduction education in China.