Title Details

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Communication and information as well as risk perception play a critical role in earthquake preparedness and impact mitigation. Hence, this study was conducted to assess the communication sources and risk perception of the students at a university located within the proximity of a fault line. This descriptive correlation study, based on the Protection Motivation Theory, determined the communication sources of college students, their risk perception by exploring their perceived vulnerability and severity of an earthquake impact, and how these affect their protection motivation behavior. One hundred and seventeen respondents chosen through convenience sampling participated by completing a questionnaire. The results indicated that the primary sources of communication for college students were government officials, friends, and Facebook. The respondents' risk perception level, consisting of vulnerability and severity, are high. Results showed that there is no correlation between communication sources and protection motivation behavior and no correlation between protection motivation and vulnerability nor severity. It is recommended that future researchers conduct a more in-depth study into communication sources which would include more specific sources and also the frequency with which the students use and the effect it has on protection motivation behavior.

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