Background The emergence of a new pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a unique challenge for public health (all age and sex groups). Objective This study aimed to explore the adolescents’ perceptions of preventive behaviors to avoid COVID-19 disease based on the health belief model (HBM). Method This cross-sectional study was conducted on 797adolescents (aged between 12-18 years old), who were 7 th -12 th -grade students of 24 randomly selected schools from 28 th May to 28 th June 2020 in Isfahan, Iran. An online self-administered questionnaire was adapted to measure the adolescents’ perceived threats, barriers, benefits, self-efficacy, and cues to action toward protective behaviors. Results Findings indicated that the adolescents' mean age was 14.7 (SD=1.7) and 53.7% of them were female. Regardless of gender difference, there was a significant positive correlation between the adolescents’ protective behaviors and their self-efficacy (r=0.62, P<0.001), perceived benefit (r=29, P<0.001), and perceived severity (r=0.15, P<0.001), while there was a significant negative correlation between the adolescents’ protective behaviors and their perceived susceptibility (r=-0.11, P<0.001), as well as their perceived barrier (r=-0.21, P<0.001). The result of the Hierarchical regression analysis also revealed that the HBM model had a significant predictive power for preventing measures towards coronavirus disease in adolescents (Adj R 2 = 0.46, p<0.001). The results also showed that self-efficacy was the strongest predictor (β=0.59, P<0.001) in explaining protective behaviors in adolescents. Conclusion In the context of coronavirus disease pandemic in adolescents, the health belief model could provide a useful framework for planners to develop educational programs. Moreover, in such a context, strategies to promote self-efficacy in adolescents should be considered more carefully to help them improve their protective behaviors.

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