Contents & Abstracts Volume 2013-1

The Australasian Journal of Disaster
and Trauma Studies
ISSN:  1174-4707
Volume : 2013-1

This journal publication has been revised and is now presented as a series of individual PDF files as linked below.
The complete issue can also be retrieved as a single PDF file.

Contents page - Volume 2013-1

Papers

Land use planning and policy for earthquakes in the Wellington Region, New Zealand (2001-2011)
Becker, J.S., Beban, J., Suanders, W.S.A., Van Dissen, R. & King, A.

Keywords: Land use planning, Policy, Earthquakes, Wellington Region

Local land use plans often have poor approaches to identifying natural hazards and mitigating for their effects. This paper uses earthquake hazards in the Wellington Region, New Zealand as a case study. A project was undertaken in 2011 to see whether the earthquake hazard had been better recognised and mitigated for in Wellington Region land use planning documents since 2001. In general, it was found that councils’ land use policy statements and plans better recognise the risk from the earthquake hazards today than they did a decade previously. There are still areas where land use planning for earthquakes can improve, including strengthening relationships between central government legislation, addressing a wide variety of hazards associated with earthquakes (not just fault rupture), and continued evaluation of policy to ensure earthquake risk is recognised, information is updated, and effective mitigation measures are employed.

Children's knowledge, cognitions and emotions surrounding natural disasters: An investigation of Year 5 students, Wellington, New Zealand
Teresa A. King & Ruth A.C. Tarrant

Keywords: disasters; education; children; earthquakes; cognitions; knowledge; emotions; preparedness.

New Zealand schools have a responsibility to ensure that children are informed about potential natural disasters, and are prepared with protective strategies. The present study aimed to investigate children’s knowledge, cognitions, and emotions concerning natural disasters, with a particular focus on earthquakes and tsunami. Thirty Year-5 school students (aged 9-10 years) from the Wellington region of New Zealand participated in researcher-led focus groups. The children were generally well informed, demonstrating an understanding of causes, characteristics, and potential consequences of earthquakes and tsunami. Thoughts and expectations regarding natural hazards, earthquakes in particular, centred on the unpredictability of natural disasters and on the expectation that there would be significant earthquakes in their region in the future. However, the children demonstrated assurance that the school and family were prepared with emergency supplies, and that they themselves and their families knew strategies for keeping safe in a disaster event. The children discussed these reassurances as a factor in reducing their fear of disasters, fear being the predominant negative emotion discussed by the children. The children indicated that learning at school had contributed to discussions with friends and family, this finding suggesting that disaster education at school is a critical component of children’s education and that this education has a flow-on effect at home and in the wider community.

The effects of news media reports on earthquake attributions and preventability judgments: Mixed messages about the Canterbury earthquake
John McClure & Justin Velluppillai

Keywords: Risk communication, Fatalistic messages, Attributions for damage, Preventability of damage

The research examined the effects of two different types of message in the news media in the weeks following the February 2011, Canterbury earthquake. Fatalistic messages portrayed widespread, generalized damage with no reference to the performance of different types of buildings, whereas informed messages conveyed the distinctiveness of damage and the flawed design of most buildings that were damaged. The study examined the effects of these two different messages on judgments of the cause and preventability of the earthquake damage, fatalism about earthquakes in general, and estimates of the proportion of buildings that were damaged. Participants (N = 75) read either fatalistic messages or informed messages. Informed reports led to higher attributions for damage to controllable causes and higher preventability ratings than fatalistic reports. These findings show that the different messages in the news media have contrasting effects on judgments about damage in a recent, local, earthquake, despite competing real world information. These results clarify which messages are likely to facilitate preparedness for earthquakes and other hazards, and have several implications for risk communication strategies.

A systematic review of the measurement of compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and secondary traumatic stress in physicians
Arohina Nimmo & Peter Huggard

Keywords: compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatisation, secondary traumatic stress, physicians, systematic literature review

Compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatisation and secondary traumatic stress, are all terms used to describe the potential emotional impact on health professionals of working with traumatised patients and clients. These terms are often used interchangeably although recent thinking supports some differences. The consequence of experiencing emotional distress as a result of patient contact is not less in physicians than in other health care professionals. However, these constructs have received little attention in the physician work force. This article reports on a systematic review of literature that reported one or more of these three constructs and as well as including attempts to measure them.

All papers are protected under the Creative Commons attribution as per our copyright notice.