Hygiene and social distancing as distinct public health related behaviours among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Wismans, Annelot
Letina, Srebrenka
Thurik, Roy
Wennberg, Karl
Franken, Ingmar
Baptista, Rui
Barrientos Marín, Jorge
Block, Joern
Burke, Andrew
Dejardin, Marcus
Janssen, Frank
Mukerjee, Jinia
Santarelli, Enrico
Millán, José María
Torrès, Olivier
Abstract / Description
Prevailing research on individuals’ compliance with public health related behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic tends to study composite measures of multiple types of behaviours, without distinguishing between different types of behaviours. However, measures taken by governments involve adjustments concerning a range of different daily behaviours. In this study, we seek to explain students’ public health related compliance behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic by examining the underlying components of such behaviours. Subsequently, we investigate how these components relate to individual attitudes towards public health measures, descriptive norms among friends and family, and key demographics. We surveyed 7,403 university students in ten countries regarding these behaviours. Principal Components Analysis reveals that compliance related to hygiene (hand washing, coughing behaviours) is uniformly distinct from compliance related to social distancing behaviours. Regression analyses predicting Social Distancing and Hygiene lead to differences in explained variance and type of predictors. Our study shows that treating public health compliance as a sole construct obfuscates the dimensionality of compliance behaviours, which risks poorer prediction of individuals’ compliance behaviours and problems in generating valid public health recommendations. Affecting these distinct behaviours may require different types of interventions.
Keyword(s)
COVID-19 public health compliance social distancing hygiene students descriptive norms attitudePersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2020-12-23
Journal title
Social Psychological Bulletin
Volume
15
Issue
4
Article number
Article e4383
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Wismans, A., Letina, S., Thurik, R., Wennberg, K., Franken, I., Baptista, R., Barrientos Marín, J., Block, J., Burke, A., Dejardin, M., Janssen, F., Mukerjee, J., Santarelli, E., Millán, J. M., & Torrès, O. (2020). Hygiene and social distancing as distinct public health related behaviours among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social Psychological Bulletin, 15(4), Article e4383. https://doi.org/10.32872/spb.4383
-
spb.v15i4.4383.pdfAdobe PDF - 465.64KBMD5: 68a778b114566a3812c387964a3eca63
-
There are no other versions of this object.
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Wismans, Annelot
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Letina, Srebrenka
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Thurik, Roy
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Wennberg, Karl
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Franken, Ingmar
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Baptista, Rui
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Barrientos Marín, Jorge
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Block, Joern
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Burke, Andrew
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Dejardin, Marcus
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Janssen, Frank
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Mukerjee, Jinia
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Santarelli, Enrico
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Millán, José María
-
Author(s) / Creator(s)Torrès, Olivier
-
PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2022-04-14T11:27:34Z
-
Made available on2022-04-14T11:27:34Z
-
Date of first publication2020-12-23
-
Abstract / DescriptionPrevailing research on individuals’ compliance with public health related behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic tends to study composite measures of multiple types of behaviours, without distinguishing between different types of behaviours. However, measures taken by governments involve adjustments concerning a range of different daily behaviours. In this study, we seek to explain students’ public health related compliance behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic by examining the underlying components of such behaviours. Subsequently, we investigate how these components relate to individual attitudes towards public health measures, descriptive norms among friends and family, and key demographics. We surveyed 7,403 university students in ten countries regarding these behaviours. Principal Components Analysis reveals that compliance related to hygiene (hand washing, coughing behaviours) is uniformly distinct from compliance related to social distancing behaviours. Regression analyses predicting Social Distancing and Hygiene lead to differences in explained variance and type of predictors. Our study shows that treating public health compliance as a sole construct obfuscates the dimensionality of compliance behaviours, which risks poorer prediction of individuals’ compliance behaviours and problems in generating valid public health recommendations. Affecting these distinct behaviours may require different types of interventions.en_US
-
Publication statuspublishedVersion
-
Review statuspeerReviewed
-
CitationWismans, A., Letina, S., Thurik, R., Wennberg, K., Franken, I., Baptista, R., Barrientos Marín, J., Block, J., Burke, A., Dejardin, M., Janssen, F., Mukerjee, J., Santarelli, E., Millán, J. M., & Torrès, O. (2020). Hygiene and social distancing as distinct public health related behaviours among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social Psychological Bulletin, 15(4), Article e4383. https://doi.org/10.32872/spb.4383en_US
-
ISSN2569-653X
-
Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/5858
-
Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.6462
-
Language of contenteng
-
PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
-
Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.32872/spb.4383
-
Is related tohttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.4412
-
Is related tohttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.4413
-
Keyword(s)COVID-19en_US
-
Keyword(s)public health complianceen_US
-
Keyword(s)social distancingen_US
-
Keyword(s)hygieneen_US
-
Keyword(s)studentsen_US
-
Keyword(s)descriptive normsen_US
-
Keyword(s)attitudeen_US
-
Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
-
TitleHygiene and social distancing as distinct public health related behaviours among university students during the COVID-19 pandemicen_US
-
DRO typearticle
-
Article numberArticle e4383
-
Issue4
-
Journal titleSocial Psychological Bulletin
-
Volume15
-
Visible tag(s)Version of Recorden_US