This thesis examines the factors that influence household emergency preparedness in Ireland. Its structure is underpinned by research papers exploring the multifaceted dimensions influencing household preparedness. Paper 1 (Chapter 2) evaluates how gender affects risk perception, revealing that women frequently view involuntary risks as more probable and severe than men. Paper 2 (Chapter 3) analyses perceived versus actual household preparedness, investigating the impact of expertise, coping appraisal, and experience. Paper 3 (Chapter 4) delves into the challenges first responders faced during the COVID-19 outbreak in Ireland. Notably, concerns for family safety significantly swayed protective behaviours, prompting some to modify family interactions or initiate actions like decontamination. Paper 4 (Chapter 5) employs an expanded PMT framework to explore fire safety in apartments. Aside from the coping appraisal of households, no factors predicted the adoption of all of the fire safety measures, emphasising the importance of tailoring preparedness campaigns by action type. Paper 5 (Chapter 6) explores PMT in relation to severe weather. While high threat and coping appraisals typically prompt protective actions, this study highlights that low confidence in the warning system can lead to non-protective responses. Paper 6 (Chapter 7) investigates the relationship between nurses' perceived and actual household emergency preparedness while also examining the key factors expected to influence both aspects of preparedness. Chapter 8 concludes by proposing a new model, Protection Action Theory (PAT), which is informed by the previous papers within this thesis. The PAT model examines household preparedness actions immediately before and following a severe weather emergency. A notable contribution of this research is conceptualising and testing the post-event coping assessment and its linkage to preparedness actions. The results show that where households rate their post-event coping assessments as relatively low during a weather-related emergency, they are more inclined to take additional preparedness measures afterwards.