Identifying Predictive Factors in Compliance with the COVID-19 Containment Measures: A Mediation Analysis

Abstract

Introduction The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has led governments to implement some containment measures to flatten the curve of the diffusion of the virus. The current study aims to investigate individual differences in compliance with these restrictive behaviors. In a sample of Italian individuals (N = 300), we examined whether sociodemographic factors, personality traits, fatalism, and fear could be considered as possible predictors. Methods We performed a series of standard multiple regression analyses and proposed a mediation analysis to test the associations among variables. Results Overall, our results suggested that men are less likely to engage in preventive behaviors, younger individuals are more reluctant to adhere to social distancing mandates, and fear has a functional role in predicting positive outcomes. Conclusion The results of our analyses are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.

Compliance Indicators of COVID-19 Prevention and Vaccines Hesitancy in Kenya: A Random-Effects Endogenous Probit Model

“…The results further showed that willingness to take the vaccines significantly increased as age increased. Similar findings have been reported [46,[82][83][84]. The results showed that the attainment of formal education increased the indicator of compliance with contactprevention.…”

“…The results showed that the attainment of formal education increased the indicator of compliance with contactprevention. This finding is contrary to the one that was reported by Padidar et al [85] but in agreement with that of Valenti and Faraci [46]. In accordance with some previous studies [82][83][84]86,87], willingness to take COVID-19 vaccines increased with educational levels.…”

“…Although some studies have indicated the role of gender, age and education in explaining individuals' compliance with COVID-19 preventive methods [29][30][31], the linkage between indicators of compliance with preventive methods and vaccine hesitancy is not well-studied in the literature. Some other studies have reported that noncompliance with COVID-19 preventive methods is linked with some negative attitudes, perception of associated health and general welfare risks, convictions on the existence of the virus, the existence of penalties for non-compliant persons, affordability and access to protective materials and the possibility or ease of working remotely [46][47][48]. Some studies have analyzed the effect of demographic and socioeconomic factors on vaccine hesitancy with mixed results [49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61].…”

Using Best-Worst Scaling to investigate younger adult Canadians’ preferences for COVID-19 vaccination and public health measures: An observational study

“…Physical distancing, and in particular “avoiding exposure to closed or crowded spaces”, was preferred. This was surprising as other studies investigating younger adults’ attitudes and beliefs towards and compliance with physical distancing show this population to be less compliant with such measures ( Valenti and Faraci, 2021 , Coroiu et al, 2020 , Lang et al, 2021 ). Unlike these studies, our methodology required participants to consider the utility trade-offs of multiple attributes when evaluating a preventive health measure.…”

“…Younger adults have been identified as a population of concern during this pandemic because they have a greater number of social contacts, are more likely to experience mild or asymptomatic infection ( Sah et al, 2021 ), and are less likely to be aware of infection and isolate from others Boehmer et al, (2020) . Numerous population-based studies have identified an association between younger age and public health measure non-compliance ( Valenti and Faraci, 2021 , Coroiu et al, 2020 ). Despite COVID-19 vaccines (including booster shots) now being widely available in Canada, younger adults aged 18-39 have a lower rate of full vaccination (about 85% ; only 35% with booster shots) than older adults, aged 60+ (90-95%; 90% with booster shots) in Canada Government of Canada.…”