An impact assessment of disaster education on children's flood risk perceptions in China: Policy implications for adaptation to climate extremes

Background: Children's flood risk perceptions that include their awareness and behaviors, can be cultivated through disaster education, which is crucial for improving disaster resilience and adaptation to climate extremes. However, education's co-influencing effect along with family and society was unclear. This study investigated a three-year disaster education program conducted in schools in Sichuan Province, China. Method: In three pilot counties, we used stratified cluster sampling in 2016 and 2018 to separately survey the risk perceptions of 2,105 children (baseline) and 1710 children (post-intervention), respectively, aged 8–12, in 45 primary schools. The Ordinary Least Squares Regression and Propensity Score Matching Method (PSM) were used to assess the effectiveness of classroom education, propaganda poster, professional guidance, social education (television, radio, friends, and internet), and risk-related parent-child interactions. Interaction items and Structure Equation Model (SEM) were performed to identify their co-influencing mechanisms. Finally, the intervention effect was assessed by categorizing different levels of parent-child interactions and left-behind status. Result: The classroom education (Coeff = 0.040; P < 0.05), propaganda poster (Coeff = 0.024; P < 0.05), and professional guidance (Coeff = 0.016; P < 0.1) had significantly positive effects on children's flood risk perception. But these effects were found to be underestimated using PSM. Interaction effects between disaster education and parent-child interaction were statistically significant, and parent-child interaction was a moderating factor for improving risk perception (standardized indirect effect = 0.055, p < 0.001). Additionally, the mean score of risk perception increased by 118% in 2018 compared with the baseline. It was found that the higher the level of risk-related parent-child interaction, the higher the mean scores of risk perception (Coeff = 0.055; P < 0.001) irrespective whether they are left-behind children. Conclusion: To improve disaster resilience and climate change adaptation, risk-related parent-child interaction should be considered in disaster education, which is an effective way to promote children's risk perceptions.