Vol. 17 No. 1 (2026): Regular Issue (In Progress)
Research Article

School Students' Perceptions of Natural-Hazard Risk in Mediterranean Spain: Education, Prevention, and Climate Change

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Alvaro-Francisco Morote
University of Valencia
Alberto Alfonso-Torreño
University of Extramadura
Jorge Olcina
University of Alicante
Brenda Tévar
CEIP l'Albereda
Ángela Zaragoza
IES Dos Mares
Danielle H. Heinrichs
Griffith University
Progression of Risk Education Across Educational Stages (Source: own elaboration)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.a.mor.17.1.284.299
Categories

Published 2026-08-05

Keywords

  • natural hazards,
  • risk perception,
  • risk literacy,
  • preventive education,
  • geography education,
  • climate change
    • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

Morote, Alvaro-Francisco, Alberto Alfonso-Torreño, Jorge Olcina, Brenda Tévar, Ángela Zaragoza, and Danielle H. Heinrichs. 2026. “School Students’ Perceptions of Natural-Hazard Risk in Mediterranean Spain: Education, Prevention, and Climate Change”. European Journal of Geography 17 (1):284-99. https://doi.org/10.48088/ejg.a.mor.17.1.284.299.

Copyright (c) 2026 Alvaro-Francisco Morote, Alberto Alfonso-Torreño, Jorge Olcina, Brenda Tévar, Ángela Zaragoza, Danielle H. Heinrichs

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Received 2026-05-02
Accepted 2026-08-01
Published 2026-08-05

Abstract

Mediterranean schools operate in territories increasingly exposed to floods, heat, drought, wildfire, and other natural hazards, yet students' risk literacy and preparedness remain uneven. This study compares the perceptions of Primary Education, Secondary Education, and Baccalaureate students regarding information sources, preventive education, textbook coverage, and the expected influence of climate change and human activity on future hazards. A non-experimental, pooled cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted with 985 students from the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia, Spain, recruited through non-probability convenience sampling. The analysed Likert-type item blocks were summarised descriptively and compared across educational stages using the Kruskal-Wallis H test and epsilon-squared effect sizes. Primary Education students reported stronger reliance on family and school and consistently higher exposure to preventive instruction, whereas social media became the highest-rated information source in Baccalaureate. Older students generally attributed greater future importance to climate-sensitive hazards and stronger effects to climate change and human activity. However, most stage effects were negligible or small; moderate effects were limited to selected preventive-education outcomes and the perceived climate-change influence on drought. The findings support a progressive, stage-sensitive approach to curricular integration that combines local hazard knowledge, action protocols, critical evaluation of digital information, and teacher pedagogical content knowledge. Because the sample was non-random and regionally bounded, the results should be interpreted as evidence about the participating students rather than population estimates for Spain.

Highlights:

  • Primary students reported the strongest school- and family-based preventive education
  • Social media and concern about climate-sensitive hazards increased towards Baccalaureate
  • A coherent curriculum progression should connect hazard knowledge, source evaluation, and protective action
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