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Psychological preparedness for disaster in elementary school students: scale development and a preliminary evaluation of a video-based disaster education program

This study developed and validated a new psychological preparedness scale for Japanese elementary students and demonstrated that a hybrid disaster education program combining immersive video simulation with cognitive behavioral therapy-based psychoeducation significantly increased students' preparedness levels.

Original authors: Takahiro Kubo, Kensuke Takenouchi, Masahiro Takamoto, Masayuki Suzuki, Kunihiro Nakahara, Chiharu Sadamitsu

Published 2026-07-25

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CC BY 4.0

Original authors: Takahiro Kubo, Kensuke Takenouchi, Masahiro Takamoto, Masayuki Suzuki, Kunihiro Nakahara, Chiharu Sadamitsu

Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). ✨ This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer

Imagine you are a captain steering a ship through a storm. In the world of science, there is a special team of researchers who study how people, especially kids, get ready for the big storms of life—like typhoons, floods, and earthquakes. This field is called "Disaster Risk Reduction." For a long time, teachers have tried to prepare students by showing them scary pictures of destruction and shouting, "Be careful! It's dangerous!" But just like a captain who panics when the waves get high, kids can sometimes get so scared that they freeze up or try to ignore the problem entirely. Scientists have realized that knowing what to do isn't enough; you also need to know how to handle your feelings when the storm hits. This paper explores a new way to teach kids: instead of just scaring them, it tries to give them a "mental life jacket" so they can stay calm and act bravely.

The researchers behind this study, based in Japan, wanted to solve two big puzzles. First, they needed a better way to measure how "psychologically ready" a child is. It's hard to grade a feeling, so they had to invent a new test specifically for elementary schoolers. Second, they wanted to try out a new kind of classroom lesson. Instead of just reading a textbook, they combined a thrilling, interactive video game about a typhoon with a lesson on how to calm your brain down when you're scared. They wanted to see if this "hybrid" approach could actually make kids feel more ready to face a disaster without making them too terrified to move.

To start, the team built a new measuring tool called the "Child version of the Psychological Preparedness for Disaster Threat Scale" (or C-PPDTS for short). Think of this like a ruler, but instead of measuring height, it measures how ready a kid feels to handle a storm. They asked 398 students in grades 4 through 6 to fill out a 24-question quiz. The questions covered three main areas: knowing what to do with the outside world (like packing a bag), managing their own feelings (like not panicking), and handling their social world (like talking to family). When they analyzed the answers, the "ruler" worked perfectly. It showed that for kids this age, these three areas are so tightly connected that they act like one big feeling of "readiness." The test was very reliable, meaning if you took it twice, you'd get a similar score. They also checked if the test made sense by asking if the kids had talked to their families about disasters. Sure enough, the kids who had discussed what to do with their parents scored much higher on the test than those who hadn't, proving the tool could tell the difference between prepared and unprepared students.

Next, the researchers put this new test to work in a real classroom with 67 fourth-grade students. They ran a 90-minute lesson that felt more like an adventure than a lecture. The first half used a special video called "Ametore" (which means "Rain Training"). This wasn't just a boring documentary; it was a first-person simulation where the students watched a typhoon approach a city through their eyes on tablets. As the storm got worse, the video paused, and the students had to tap a button to say how they were feeling, from "super negative" to "super positive." The goal was to let them feel a little bit of the stress in a safe, controlled way.

Once the storm simulation was over, the second half of the class switched gears. The teachers explained that feeling scared is normal, but there are tricks to handle it. They taught the kids how to spot their own stress signals and gave them a specific tool called "Star Breathing." Imagine tracing a star shape with your finger: you breathe in as you go up and breathe out as you go down. It's a simple way to tell your body to chill out. The students practiced this right after the scary video, turning that initial fear into a plan for staying calm.

When the researchers checked the students' scores before and after the lesson, the results were promising. The average score for psychological preparedness went up significantly. It wasn't a massive, overnight transformation, but it was a solid, noticeable jump—like a small-to-moderate boost in confidence. The students seemed to understand the lesson well, and the video successfully made them feel the emotions of a storm without breaking them. However, there was a catch: while the kids felt more ready inside their own heads, the lesson didn't immediately change whether they went home and talked to their parents about disaster plans. That part of the plan didn't shift, suggesting that changing a family's habits might need more than just one classroom session.

The authors are careful to say that this is just the beginning. They tested this in only one school with one group of kids, so they can't say for sure that this method works for everyone yet. They didn't have a control group to compare against, and they didn't check if the kids remembered these skills a month later. But the study suggests that mixing a scary simulation with a "calm-down" lesson is a smart idea. It's like teaching someone to swim by first letting them feel the water, and then immediately showing them how to float, rather than just throwing them in and yelling "Don't drown!" This approach seems to help kids turn their fear into readiness, offering a new, kinder way to prepare for the storms of the future.

Technical Summary: Psychological Preparedness for Disaster in Elementary School Students

Problem Statement
Disaster risk reduction (DRR) education is critical for protecting children from increasingly severe hydrometeorological events, yet traditional approaches often rely on fear appeals that can induce overwhelming anxiety and maladaptive responses (e.g., defensive avoidance). Furthermore, a significant gap exists in the field: there are no validated, age-appropriate assessment tools for measuring psychological preparedness in middle childhood (elementary school students). Without such tools, educators cannot objectively evaluate the efficacy of DRR programs or track progress toward Sendai Framework goals regarding children's psychological readiness. Current measures, such as the Psychological Preparedness for Disaster Threat Scale (PPDTS), are designed for adults and utilize terminology unsuitable for children.

Methodology
The study employed a two-phase approach to address these gaps:

Study 1: Scale Development and Validation
- Participants: A sample of 398 Japanese elementary school students (Grades 4–6) recruited via a web-based survey panel.
- Instrument: The researchers developed the Child version of the Psychological Preparedness for Disaster Threat Scale (C-PPDTS), adapting the adult PPDTS to the linguistic and cognitive levels of children. The scale consists of 24 items based on three theoretical domains: management of the external environment, management of emotional/psychological responses, and management of the social environment.
- Analysis: Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted to test three competing models (one-factor, three-factor correlated, and second-order factor). Internal consistency was assessed via Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega. Construct validity was evaluated using a known-groups method, comparing scores between students who had discussed disaster response with their families and those who had not.
Study 2: Preliminary Evaluation of a Hybrid Intervention
- Participants: 67 fourth-grade students from a national elementary school in a coastal Japanese city.
- Intervention: A 90-minute classroom program combining a video-based typhoon simulation ("Ametore") with psychoeducation grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles. The simulation used a first-person perspective to induce manageable emotional arousal, followed by instruction on stress response components and coping skills (e.g., "Star Breathing").
- Design: A single-group pre-post design. Psychological preparedness was measured using the C-PPDTS one week prior to and 1–2 weeks after the intervention.
- Process Measures: Real-time emotion logs during the simulation and post-intervention reflection sheets were used to assess engagement and comprehension.

Key Results

Scale Validation (Study 1):
- Factor Structure: CFA supported a 24-item second-order factor structure (CFI = .942, RMSEA = .059). While a three-factor correlated model fit equally well, the correlations between the three first-order factors were extremely high ( $r_s$ ranging from .931 to .972), suggesting that for this age group, the domains function as a single global construct.
- Reliability: The scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency ( $\alpha$ = .96, $\omega$ = .96).
- Validity: Known-groups validity was supported; students who discussed disaster response with their families scored significantly higher than those who did not ( $d$ = 0.73, $p$ < .001).
Intervention Evaluation (Study 2):
- Feasibility: The intervention was successfully implemented. Process measures indicated high program comprehension (99% of students reported clear understanding) and an emotional trajectory that aligned with the disaster scenario (shifting from neutral to negative during the threat and returning to positive during the recovery phase).
- Effectiveness: Psychological preparedness scores increased significantly from pre-test ( $M$ = 69.52) to post-test ( $M$ = 74.09), $t(66)$ = 3.26, $p$ = .002. The effect size was small-to-moderate ( $d$ = 0.40).
- Behavioral Change: There was no significant change in the frequency of family discussions regarding disaster response from pre- to post-test ( $p$ = .789).

Key Contributions

Development of the C-PPDTS: The study provides the first validated, age-appropriate self-report scale for measuring psychological preparedness in Japanese elementary school students. It establishes a second-order factor structure that acknowledges the undifferentiated nature of coping domains in middle childhood while retaining the theoretical subdomains of the original adult scale.
Hybrid Educational Model: The study demonstrates the feasibility of a "hybrid" DRR approach that pairs immersive threat simulation with immediate coping-focused psychoeducation. This model aims to overcome the limitations of traditional fear-based education by normalizing stress responses and equipping students with emotion-regulation tools.
Empirical Evidence: The study offers preliminary observational data suggesting that such a hybrid intervention can produce immediate, short-term gains in children's self-reported psychological readiness for typhoon threats.

Significance and Claims
The authors claim that this work represents a critical step toward shifting school-based DRR education from "experience-based" to "evidence-based." By providing a validated measurement tool (C-PPDTS), the study enables the objective monitoring of children's psychological preparedness, a dimension previously absent from standard evaluation frameworks.

The authors position the hybrid intervention as a promising preliminary model that may overcome the paralyzing effects of fear appeals. They argue that by coupling threat appraisal with efficacy-building (coping skills), educators can foster proactive readiness rather than defensive avoidance. However, the authors maintain a modest tone regarding the findings:

They explicitly state that the single-group design precludes definitive causal claims about the intervention's efficacy.
They note that the lack of change in family discussions suggests that improvements in individual psychological preparedness do not automatically generalize to behavioral changes in the home context.
They emphasize that the durability of these gains is unknown and that future research requires randomized controlled trials with delayed post-tests to confirm the mechanism and long-term effectiveness.

In conclusion, the paper presents the C-PPDTS as a necessary tool for policy and practice alignment with the Sendai Framework and proposes a pedagogical shift toward integrating psychological coping skills into disaster education, warranting further rigorous investigation.

Technical Summary: Psychological Preparedness for Disaster in Elementary School Students

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