Resilience, coping strategies, and disaster experience : a path analysis of preparedness and avoidance in Taiwan

Abstract

Background: This study investigates the relationships between resilience dimensions, coping strategies, and prior disaster experience, focusing on disaster preparedness and avoidance behaviors in Taiwan. Methods: A total of 550 participants were surveyed, with 57.82% being female and the majority aged between 21 and 40 years. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and path analysis, we examined six resilience dimensions, which include problem-solving, social support, negative emotion regulation, stable interpersonal relationships, assertiveness, and self-regulation, as predictors of disaster preparedness and avoidance behaviors. Results: The models accounted for 41.83–44.83% of the variance in preparedness and 5.43–10.74% of the variance in denial/avoidance. Across all models, problem-solving, assertiveness, and living with family consistently predicted higher preparedness, while income consistently predicted lower denial and avoidance behaviors. Notably, flood experience significantly moderated the relationship between social support and denial/avoidance (β = 0.21, p = .017), indicating that participants with stronger social support who had experienced floods were more likely to engage in denial and avoidance behaviors. Additionally, flood experience negatively moderated the relationship between negative emotion regulation and both preparedness (β = − 0.18, p = .035) and denial/avoidance (β = − 0.23, p = .030), suggesting that individuals with higher emotional regulation were less likely to prepare or deny disaster risks after flood exposure. Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of addressing individual resilience capacities and the complexities of prior disaster experiences in disaster preparedness interventions, with particular attention to vulnerable populations.