Profiling lockdown adherence and poor coping responses towards the COVID-19 crisis in an international cross-sectional survey

Abstract

This study uses international respondents to a COVID-lockdown related questionnaire (n = 1,688) to assess the determinants of adherence and poor coping in response to lockdown measures. A regression analysis was used to compare the relative importance of clusters derived from a K-means cluster analysis as well as various demographics (age, gender, level of education, political affiliation, a factor reflecting social security and a factor reflecting the lockdown harshness). Three distinct clusters (General Population, Extreme Responders and Sufferers) were identified, corresponding well to a previous study. Clusters appeared to be the best overall predictors of coping and adherence although gender, political affiliation and lockdown harshness were also important predictors. The large proportion of variance that remains unexplained, combined with the relatively weak effects of traditional demographics, suggest that less concrete variables such as personality traits, health and environmental factors may be better predictors of adherence and coping during a pandemic.