Background

Youth and young adults, ages 15–29, have been identified as assets in mitigation and management for natural disasters around the world. This study reviews the literature on disaster mitigation, response, and recovery following natural disasters with a focus on the engagement of youth and young adults.

Methods

The Arksey and O’Malley (2005) scoping review model was used to broadly summarize existing literature. A comprehensive electronic search was conducted using several databases. Keywords and index terms were searched using four concepts: (a) age (e.g., youth, young adult), (b) participation type (e.g., engagement, participation), (c) natural disaster type (e.g., hurricane, tsunami), and (d) disaster response type (e.g., planning, mitigation).

Results

The search yielded 214 articles published between 1990 and 2021. Of these articles, 19 met inclusion criteria. Identified literature focused on youth and young adults' mitigation and recovery efforts responding to natural disasters in several different countries. Themes of young people's participation or youth-led efforts focused on community mobilization and resilience (n = 5), youth empowerment and policy advocacy (n = 2), communication technology (n = 2), education-community partnerships (n = 9), and postdisaster rescue efforts (n = 1).

Conclusions

With a changing climate and increased weather-related natural disasters, as well as in the context of a global health pandemic, community-based groups would benefit from learning from international efforts to engage young people in disaster mitigation and recovery efforts especially as it relates to promoting mental health and well-being.