Risk experience, emotions, place identity, and coping strategies in people affected by an unexpected fire

Abstract

This study is intended to elucidate the impact of the experience of risk on emotions and coping strategies following an unexpected fire. It looked at residents of the Island of Madeira, where a highly destructive fire had recently occurred. Two groups were compared (people who had been affected directly by the fire event and others who had not) in order to study their risk perception, emotions and coping strategies, and to explore the variables that might contribute to explaining each group’s coping strategies. The results showed that people affected directly by the fire reported higher levels of active coping strategies, such as analysis and prevention. Women displayed higher levels of fear and less use of active coping strategies. The results also revealed that anger, local identity and fire experience predicted both analysis and prevention forms of coping. However, coping delegation was only predicted by local identity, and coping denial just by fear.