A Psychological Model of Climate Change Adaptation: Influence of Resource Loss, Posttraumatic Growth, Norms, and Risk Perception Following Cyclone Winston in Fiji

Abstract

This chapter examines behavioral intentions to prevent climate change and climate change risk perceptions among people living in coastal communities in Fiji following Cyclone Winston, a natural disaster whose strength was likely increased by climate change. Cyclone Winston was one of the strongest cyclones ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere and the strongest to make landfall in Fiji. The study extends our psychological climate change risk perception model to examine how posttraumatic growth following Cyclone Winston influenced behavioral intentions to prevent climate change (Sattler and Graham 2017). Posttraumatic growth can occur in response to experiencing a traumatic stressor and involves reflecting on life priorities and what gives live meaning (Calhoun and Tedeschi 2001). We also tested van der Linden’s (2015) climate change risk perception model by considering how individual and socio-cultural variables influence climate change risk perception, and extended it to predict behavioral intentions to prevent climate change. For this study, we used behavioral intentions as a proxy for behavioral adaption. The participants, 274 persons (160 men, 114 women) in coastal communities in Fiji (age: M = 39, SD = 14), completed measures assessing climate change risk perception; knowledge, affect, and social norms concerning climate change; behavioral intention to prevent climate change, and demographics. The findings show three pathways to climate change adaptation/behavioral intention to prevent climate change: (1) posttraumatic growth mediates the relationship between resource loss due to the cyclone and education with behavioral intentions to prevent climate change, (2) resource loss due to the cyclone activates social norms concerning climate change action, which in turn leads to behavioral intention to prevent climate change, and (3) climate change risk perception mediates the influence of social norms, knowledge, and affect on behavioral intentions to prevent climate change. The findings support and extend our psychological model and van der Linden’s model. Implications of the findings for climate change adaptation and education are discussed.