Earthquake Safety Culture Scale Development Study

Earthquakes have been one of the most significant natural disasters threatening humanity throughout history. In this study, we aimed to develop an earthquake safety culture scale to psychometrically measure individuals' attitudes and behaviors regarding their personal life safety before and after an earthquake. During the scale development phase, two different surveys were administered for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The study population consisted of individuals aged 18 and over living in Turkey. 445 individuals participated in the EFA and 309 in the CFA. The earthquake safety culture scale, a two-factor structure (pre-earthquake and post-earthquake), yielded highly reliable and valid results. It is believed that the resulting scale will contribute to disaster managers in the process of building an earthquake-resilient society, as well as to local and national disaster management policies such as training, awareness, planning, and exercises for community-supported disaster management. It is recommended that this developed scale be retested in different cultures and its relationship with various variables that may influence pre- and post-earthquake attitudes regarding disaster management be investigated.