Household earthquake readiness: Conceptualization and measurement.

Decades of research have been dedicated to understanding and measuring the capacity of households to face and deal with earthquakes. A reflective-measure model equating household earthquake readiness to preparedness has been adopted assuming the presence of a common factor. However, using instruments with unknown psychometric properties is prevalent, instruments with known psychometric properties are unaligned with the construct, and information on the source of items is missing. This study proposes an alternative theoretical framework based on a causal indicator model equating household earthquake readiness to hazard adjustments applied to earthquakes; investigates the presence of a common factor; and, suggests a new measure constructed following the literature guidelines and based on prior research on household earthquake readiness: Earthquake Adjustments Checklist (EAC). Factor Analysis was used to analyze the data from 921 residents in the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago vulnerable to seismic risk. The final version of the EAC contains 13 items derived from the literature that are congruent with Portuguese household earthquake recommendations and with the supporting construct. These items were formulated to be applicable elsewhere. A four-factor solution was obtained differing from the three postulated dimensions of hazard adjustments. The results showed weak correlations, low commonalities and internal consistency pointing to a common factor that is nonexistent or at least insufficient to explain the variability in the adoption of household earthquake adjustments. Moreover, a weak correlation was found between two factors. These findings have implications for the understanding and measuring of household earthquake readiness and practice. • Earthquake preparedness instruments are unaligned with the construct measured. • The conceptual framework to assess household earthquake readiness is unconsolidated. • We suggest equating household earthquake readiness to earthquake adjustments. • Weak correlations, communalities, and Cronbach alpha indicate a weak common factor. • Earthquake adjustments dimensions were not confirmed, requiring further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]