Cumulative disaster exposure, gender and the protective action decision model Jessica L. Liddell a, ⁎ , Leia Y. Saltzman b , Regardt J. Ferreira b,c , Amy E. Lesen d a City, Culture and Community-PhD Program, Tulane University School of Social Work, United States of America b Tulane University School of Social Work, United States of America c Department of Social Work, University of the Free State, South Africa d Tulane ByWater Institute, Tulane University, United States of America ABSTRACT ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 19 March 2019 Received in revised form 11 September 2019 Accepted 12 September 2019 Available online 29 October 2019 The relationship between gender, disaster exposure, and the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) is explored through a survey administered to 326 Gulf Coast residents following the Deep-Water Horizon oil spill. Structural Equa- tion Modeling was used to find that disaster exposure demonstrated a significant negative effect on PADM, such that greater exposure was associated with lower scores (g = -3.09, p < .001). Similarly, gender was a significant covar- iate in the model, such that being female was associated with an increase in scores (g = 0.33, p < .05). This work high- lights the relationships between gender, cumulative disaster exposure, and the PADM. Keywords: Protective Action Decision Model Technological disaster Disaster recovery 1. Introduction Between the years 2005 and 2015, disasters caused over US $1.3 trillion in damages and displaced millions of people [1]. These disasters are com- prised of both natural disasters (disasters that are either geophysical, mete- orological, hydrological, climatological, or biological) and technological disasters [2]. Technological disasters are disasters that are man-made and that are generally caused by some type of accident (vehicular, structure col- lapse, exposure, fire, or chemical) [3]. The United States is considered a “hot-spot” for technological disasters, and ranks #3 in overall occurrences of technological disasters, number #4 in number of deaths, number #5 in number of injuries, number #6 in number of affected people and number #1 in economic damages [4]. Though the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill is the largest and most significant oil spill in the scope of damage it caused, there have been at least 44 oil spills since the 1969 oil well blowout in Santa, Barbara California [5]. Other notable spills have included the 1989 Exxon Valdez Spill, the 1979 Ixtoc Spill, the 1994 Morris J. Berman Spill, the 1971 Texaco Oklahoma Spill, and the 1977 Hawaiian Patriot, among others [5]. There is evidence that natural and technological disasters may differ in their short and long-term impacts on individual mental and physical health, and in their impact on community infrastructure [6–8], making continued research on technological disasters especially important. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion was one of the largest technological disaster events in United States history [9]. In addition to kill- ing 11 crewmembers, the explosion caused an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil to pour into the Gulf of Mexico, negatively impacting communities throughout Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and causing eco- nomic damage of at least US $36.8 billion [9]. Because many individuals living in this region depend on coastal areas for both social, recreational, and economic resources, the impact of the oil spill on local communities was immense. It is estimated that the loss to the seafood industry was at least $4.36 billion dollars [9]. Tourism is an additional important area of revenue for these areas and is estimated to have cost local economies be- tween $7.6 billion to $22.7 billion dollars [9]. Loss of income was fre- quently associated with increased mental distress, and high rates of anxiety and depression in areas impacted by the spill [10]. Other re- searchers have noted the increase in “community corrosion” following the disaster, with communities offering less emotional and instrumental support to fellow members [11]. However, much of the long-term impact of this disaster on coastal communities has still yet to be fully determined [8,12,13]. Coastal areas are especially vulnerable to natural disasters such as hur- ricanes and flooding, in addition to being at high risk for technological di- sasters due to their proximity to oil rigs and processing facilities [14]. In the United States, coastal communities in the Gulf South have been Progress in Disaster Science 5 (2020) 100042 ⁎ Corresponding author at: School of Social Work, Tulane University, 127 Elk Place, New Orleans, LA 70112-2627, United States of America. E-mail address: jliddell@tulane.edu. (J.L. Liddell). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pdisas.2019.100042 2590-0617/©2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Progress in Disaster Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pdisas