Hinssen Marina, Dohle Simone
Gender in Medicine, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.
Social Cognition Center Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2023 Aug 15;14:1195607. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1195607. eCollection 2023.
Disease outbreaks are expected to occur more frequently and spread more rapidly in the age of globalization. Personal protective behaviors strongly affect infection and death rates worldwide. It is therefore of prime importance to better understand which factors predict personal protective behaviors during a pandemic. Protection motivation theory (PMT) proposes that people's motivation to protect themselves is based on two appraisal processes: threat appraisal and coping appraisal. Building on PMT, this longitudinal study aimed to predict personal protective behaviors in response to COVID-19, including hand hygiene, physical distancing, and mask wearing.
In the first wave of the study (November, 2020), the two appraisal processes as specified in PMT as well as intentions to perform protective behaviors were assessed in a representative sample of German adults ( = 328). In the second wave of this study, which was conducted one month later, the frequency of protective behaviors was measured. Structural equation modeling was used to test whether threat and coping appraisal predicted intentions and protective behaviors.
Response rate for the second wave was high (87%). For all three behaviors, self-efficacy predicted intentions and also indirectly behavior (i.e., mediated via intentions). Furthermore, exploratory tests of alternative theoretical models suggested that both self-efficacy and costs have direct effects (i.e., independent from their relationship with intentions) on performed behavior.
To support individuals to engage in protective behaviors during a pandemic, it is important to reduce barriers to action and to foster individuals' self-efficacy.
在全球化时代，疾病爆发预计会更频繁地发生且传播得更快。个人防护行为对全球的感染率和死亡率有重大影响。因此，更好地了解哪些因素能预测大流行期间的个人防护行为至关重要。保护动机理论（PMT）提出，人们自我保护的动机基于两个评估过程：威胁评估和应对评估。基于保护动机理论，这项纵向研究旨在预测针对新冠疫情的个人防护行为，包括手部卫生、保持社交距离和佩戴口罩。
在研究的第一阶段（2020年11月），对德国成年人的代表性样本（n = 328）评估了保护动机理论中规定的两个评估过程以及执行防护行为的意图。在一个月后进行的研究的第二阶段，测量了防护行为的频率。采用结构方程模型来检验威胁评估和应对评估是否能预测意图和防护行为。
第二阶段的回复率很高（87%）。对于所有三种行为，自我效能感预测了意图，并且还间接预测了行为（即通过意图进行中介）。此外，对替代理论模型的探索性测试表明，自我效能感和成本对实际行为都有直接影响（即独立于它们与意图的关系）。
为了支持个人在大流行期间采取防护行为，减少行动障碍并增强个人的自我效能感很重要。
