Abstract
PURPOSE: To identify youth experiences and perspectives on disaster readiness, with the goal of informing policies that promote youths' ability to better prepare for disasters and to elevate individual and community resilience. METHODS: MyVoice, a national text message survey of youth aged 14-24 years, posed five open-ended questions on experiences and perceptions of disaster readiness in November 2021. Youth were asked about their experiences with disasters, whether they anticipate experiencing a disaster in the near future, perceived personal disaster readiness, how they would obtain information in the event of a disaster, and what they could do now to prepare for a disaster. Responses were reviewed to identify themes and iteratively develop a codebook. Two reviewers independently coded responses to each question and resolved discrepancies via discussion to reach consensus. Summary statistics were calculated for demographic and thematic analysis. RESULTS: A total of 1,083 respondents answered at least one question (89.9% response rate). Five major themes were identified: 1) youth or their loved ones have experienced severe disasters, 2) they expect these events to be more frequent in the future, 3) youth experiences of and readiness for a disaster event is personal and exists on a continuum, 4) youth have important insights on disasters, and 5) individual, community, and regional differences and limitations directly affect youth's ability to prepare and respond to a disaster. CONCLUSIONS: Youth are significant stakeholders in developing strategies to be ready for disasters and their insights can lead to policy development that allow youth to prioritize the effective readiness strategies to mitigate the potentially traumatic impacts and promote individual and community resilience.