Elements that associate with participants’ psychological discomfort during simplified fire drills

Fire drills may reinforce the survival skills of participants on the one hand, and on the other hand, they might bring a certain amount of psychological discomfort. To identify elements associated with the psychological discomfort, a designed questionnaire was distributed to postgraduate students who had experienced fire drills in Islington (London) and 1640 valid responses were obtained. With the help of regression analysis, this research found that participants' awareness of precaution, individual initiative of participation, the personal judgement of simplified fire drills (SFDs), participation of SFDs, evaluation of SFDs' function in practical applications, and satisfaction with SFDs' performance are positively associated with participants' psychological discomfort, while the procedural arrangement of SFDs, time interval of joining in the last SFD, and the frequency of simplified fire drills experienced are negatively associated with participants' psychological discomfort. Moreover, personal awareness of precaution, individual initiative of participation, individual satisfaction with SFDs' performance, the time interval of joining in the last SFD, procedural arrangement of SFDs, and the frequency of simplified fire drills experienced could explain 30.02% of the variance in participants' psychological discomfort.