The impact of school-based disaster education on psychological resilience in high-risk urban areas of Türkiye: a quasi-experimental study

This study examined the impact of a school-based disaster education program aimed at enhancing psychological resilience among teachers, administrators, and students in high-risk urban areas of Istanbul, Türkiye. Unlike conventional programs that focus solely on physical preparedness, this intervention emphasizes cognitive, emotional, and social components to strengthen psychological readiness. Using a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest-control group design, data were collected from six schools across three high-risk districts. The findings indicate that the intervention led to a significantly greater improvement in psychological resilience levels in the experimental group compared to the control group, with these gains sustained over a three-month follow-up period. While promising, these findings should be interpreted within the context of the study's limitations, including its sample size and relatively short follow-up duration. This study contributes to limited research on integrated, psychologically focused disaster education in urban contexts. The results highlight the critical importance of integrating psychological resilience into disaster preparedness policies and provide a practical, evidence-based model for enhancing school and community readiness in earthquake-prone urban areas in Türkiye.