Beyond routine drills: the role of specialized disaster education in fostering disaster awareness and preparedness

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Understanding how disaster education enhances awareness and preparedness is crucial for improving community resilience to disasters. Although Japan widely implements routine evacuation drills, these may not foster an autonomous understanding of hazard characteristics. Conversely, specialized disaster education—such as survivor talks or field activities—provides deeper engagement; however, empirical evidence of its association with later awareness and preparedness remains limited. This study examined whether specialized disaster education correlates with higher disaster awareness and preparedness among young adults in Japan compared to standard evacuation drills. A nationwide online questionnaire survey obtained valid responses from 1,479 participants in their twenties. Respondents were divided into Specialized Education and Standard Drill groups, and their awareness and preparedness behaviors were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ordinal logistic regression with partial proportional-odds models. The results showed that the Specialized Education group had significantly higher awareness of local disaster risks and greater preparedness than those in the Standard Drill group, who were often neutral or undecided. Among the key indicators, the positive impact of specialized disaster education surpassed that of demographic characteristics and past disaster experience. Notably, regression analysis revealed that education was particularly effective in raising awareness from low to moderate levels, highlighting its role in raising hazard awareness. These findings underscore the value of additional specialized disaster education in supplementing standard drills.