Gender Risk Perception and Coping Mechanisms among Ghanaian University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Recent research has shown that gender is an important driver of the risk of mortality and morbidity rates for people with COVID-19, with case fatality rates being higher for women than men. Despite this pattern, research is sparse on gender risk perception and potential coping mechanisms. This study examined the role gender plays in the relationship between COVID-19 risk perception and coping mechanisms among university students. Through the adoption of traditional and online surveys, 859 students from two public universities in Ghana were conveniently selected to respond to the survey instrument. The results from the multivariate regression analysis revealed that COVID-19 risk perception was positively related to active coping. The outcome of the moderation analysis showed that while males were more likely than females to adopt active and emotional support coping with heightened risk perception, a contrary outcome was observed for behaviour disengagement. This result is an indication that female students are likely to be overwhelmed with a high level of risk perception and easily give up trying to adopt effective strategies to reduce the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The findings highlight the need for different forms of intervention for male and female students for dealing with the effect of COVID-19.

Validity and Reliability of Cultural Mix Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations among Healthcare Professionals in Ghana Amidst COVID-19

“…This further supports evidence of external structure [ 57 ]. The outcome that adaptive coping strategies (i.e., active coping and emotional support) are negatively associated with anxiety and maladaptive coping (i.e., behaviour disengagement) is positively correlated with anxiety [ 48 , 50 , 72 ] is an indication of sufficient validity of the coping inventory.…”

“…The McDonald’s Omega reliability coefficients for the active coping, religious coping, behaviour disengagement and emotional support dimensions are 0.82, 0.81, 0.87 and 0.83, respectively. Since the development and calibration of the instrument, it has been adopted as a coping measure in recent studies to assess how teachers and students cope with varied stressful experiences [ 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ].…”

Public Risk Perception Attribution Model and Governance Path in COVID-19: A Perspective Based on Risk Information

“… 23 Risk perception is positively correlated with active coping in COVID-19, and men are more likely to take active coping methods than women. 24 Perceptions of cannabis-related risk become more lax with age, especially among adults, emerging adults, and middle-aged adults. 25 The level of risk perception for glaucoma is influenced by urban residence.…”

Assessing the validity of digital health literacy instrument for secondary school students in Ghana: The polychoric factor analytic approach

“…The COVID-19 pandemic has affected several lives and sectors of the economy, including education. During the period, students experienced huge psychological consequences threatening their health and well-being (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7). The sudden onset of COVID-19 was accompanied by an "infodemic", overabundance of valid and invalid health-related information on COVID-19 (8)(9)(10)(11)(12).…”