Informal social support and disaster preparedness: Mediating roles of perceived collective efficacy and self-efficacy

This study investigates the mechanisms of informal social support on individuals' disaster preparedness. Specifically, we examine the mediating roles of perceived collective efficacy and self efficacy. Drawing on survey data of 1056 drought-prone and 203 earthquake-prone villagers in two rural areas of China, we found that informal social support affected preparedness positively in the drought contexts but negatively in the earthquake contexts. Moreover, as mediators, perceived collective efficacy and self-efficacy differed in their effects on people's disaster preparations. The findings provide important insights for risk managers in showing that interventions involving collective efficacy can be effective in stimulating individual preparation in the slow onset disaster environment, such as drought, whereas those involving self-efficacy can be effective for sudden onset disaster environment, such as earthquakes.