The Portuguese coastline is susceptible to extreme natural events that can jeopardise the safety of coastal populations, with coastal erosion being one of the most prevalent natural phenomena on the Portuguese coast. Costa da Caparica is a city with a long history of coastal interventions aimed at mitigating the cumulative effects of coastal erosion in the region. Exposed to such threats and the interventions made to mitigate them, residents and visitors will adopt different ways of perceiving and acting upon the risk. Place bonds may intervene in these perceptions, but the literature reports contradictory effects for this variable. This study aimed to assess whether different types of place attachment among residents of the Almada municipality are associated with different levels of adoption of protective behaviours, and whether this relationship is mediated by risk perception. It also examined whether the participant's status, as either a resident or a visitor of Costa da Caparica, and their trust in authorities, moderate the relationship between the variables. The study included 197 participants who were asked to complete an online questionnaire. From the total sample, xx were residents at Costa da Caparica and xx were non-residents/visitors. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were performed with SPSS and the macro Process. The results indicate that most participants in this study perceive the risks associated with coastal erosion as moderate and reported low levels of protective behaviour adoption, suggesting that people are only motivated to adopt certain behaviours when they feel their safety is at risk. The data shows that an active attachment to the place is associated with greater adoption of protective behaviours, while no significant effect of traditional place attachment was found, nor the expected mediation effect. A moderating effect of participant status suggests that risk perception is more dependent on active place attachment for visitors than for residents. This research highlights the importance of considering psychosocial aspects in the way people deal with threats to better involve citizens in coastal protection, since it is fundamental to consider the individual and their respective community as part of the solution.

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Coastal erosion,Protective behaviours,Place attachment,Risk perception,Trust in authorities

• Psicologia - Ciências Sociais