Marketing Department, Hankamer School of Business, Baylor University, Waco, TX, United States.
J Med Internet Res. 2021 Mar 17;23(3):e23218. doi: 10.2196/23218.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, self-quarantining, wearing masks, and washing hands have become part of the new norm for many, but not all. It appears that such preventive measures are critical to "flattening the curve" of the spread of COVID-19. The public's adoption of such behaviors is an essential component in the battle against what has been referred to as the "invisible enemy."
The primary objective of this study was to develop a model for predicting COVID-19 preventive behaviors among US college students. The Health Belief Model has a long history of use and empirical support in predicting preventive health behaviors, but it is not without its purported shortcomings. This study identifies a more optimal and defensible combination of variables to explain preventive behaviors among college students. This segment of the US population is critical in helping slow the spread of COVID-19 because of the relative reluctance of college students to perform the needed behaviors given they do not feel susceptible to or fearful of COVID-19.
For this study, 415 US college students were surveyed via Qualtrics and asked to answer questions regarding their fear of COVID-19, information receptivity (seeking relevant information), perceived knowledge of the disease, self-efficacy, and performance of preventive behaviors. The PROCESS macro (Model 6) was used to test our conceptual model, including predictions involving sequential mediation.
Sequential mediation results show that fear of COVID-19 leads individuals to seek out information regarding the disease, which increases their perceived knowledge and fosters self-efficacy; this is key to driving preventive behaviors.
Self-imposed preventive measures can drastically impact the rate of infection among populations. Based on this study's newly created sequential mediation model, communication strategies for encouraging COVID-19 preventive behaviors are offered. It is clear that college students, and very possibly adults of all ages, must have a healthy fear of COVID-19 to set in motion a process where concerned individuals seek out COVID-19-related information, increasing their store of knowledge concerning the disease, their self-efficacy, and ultimately their likelihood of performing the needed preventive behaviors.
自 COVID-19 大流行开始以来，社交距离、自我隔离、戴口罩和勤洗手已成为许多人（但不是所有人）的新规范的一部分。这些预防措施似乎对于“拉平 COVID-19 传播曲线”至关重要。公众采取这些行为是对抗所谓“隐形敌人”的战斗中的一个重要组成部分。
本研究的主要目的是为美国大学生制定 COVID-19 预防行为预测模型。健康信念模型在预测预防性行为方面具有悠久的使用历史和经验支持，但它并非没有所谓的缺点。本研究确定了更优且更合理的变量组合，以解释大学生的预防行为。美国这部分人口对于减缓 COVID-19 的传播至关重要，因为大学生相对不愿意采取必要的行为，因为他们感觉自己不易感染或不害怕 COVID-19。
在这项研究中，通过 Qualtrics 对 415 名美国大学生进行了调查，要求他们回答有关对 COVID-19 的恐惧、信息接受度（寻求相关信息）、对疾病的认知程度、自我效能感以及预防行为的问题。使用 PROCESS 宏（模型 6）来检验我们的概念模型，包括涉及顺序中介的预测。
顺序中介结果表明，对 COVID-19 的恐惧导致个人寻求有关该疾病的信息，从而增加了他们的认知程度并增强了自我效能感；这是推动预防行为的关键。
自我实施的预防措施可以极大地影响人群的感染率。基于这项研究新创建的顺序中介模型，提出了鼓励 COVID-19 预防行为的沟通策略。很明显，大学生，甚至可能是所有年龄段的成年人，都必须对 COVID-19 有健康的恐惧，以启动一个过程，使关注的个人寻求与 COVID-19 相关的信息，增加他们对疾病的了解、自我效能感，最终更有可能采取必要的预防行为。
