Social Environment and Attitudes toward COVID-19 Anti-Contagious Measures: An Explorative Study from Italy

Abstract

Social and cultural aspects (i.e., political decision making, discourses in the public sphere, and people’s mindsets) played a crucial role in the ways people responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Framed with the Semiotic-Cultural Psychological Theory (SCPT), the present work aims to explore how individual ways of making sense of their social environment affected individuals’ perception of government measures aimed at managing the pandemic and the adherence to such measures. An online survey was administered from January to April 2021 to the Italian population. Retrieved questionnaires (N = 378) were analyzed through a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) to detect the factorial dimensions underpinning (dis)similarities in the respondents’ ways of interpreting their social environment. Extracted factors were interpreted as markers of Latent Dimensions of Sense (LDSs) organizing respondents’ worldviews. Finally, three regression models tested the role of LDSs in supporting the individual satisfaction with the measures adopted to contain the social contagion defined at national level, individual adherence to the containment measures and the perception of the population’s adherence to them. Results highlight that all the three measures are associated with a negative view of the social environment characterized by a lack of confidence in public institutions (health system, government), public roles and other people. Findings are discussed on the one hand to shed light on the role of deep-rooted cultural views in defining personal evaluations of government measures and adherence capacity. On the other hand, we suggest that taking into account people’s meaning-making can guide public health officials and policy makers to comprehend what favors or hinders adaptive responses to emergencies or social crises.

Cultural dynamics influencing decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic: the Italian case

“…First and foremost, the emphasis on family and communal ties in addressing the challenges of isolation may have played a crucial role. This emphasis likely heightened the sense of collectivism among citizens during the lockdown ( Travaglino and Moon, 2021 ; Gennaro et al, 2023 ). This shift reflects a noteworthy departure from the conventional characterization of Italy as an individualistic society.…”

“…Several social factors, including gender ( Galasso et al, 2020 ), trust ( Gennaro et al, 2023 ), and political affiliation ( Gollwitzer et al, 2020 ), have been shown to influence attitudes, behaviors, and health outcomes related to the pandemic. Among these factors, cultural orientation in the form of individualism–collectivism has received significant attention in academic research ( Ashraf et al, 2022 ).…”

The Up-Side of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Are Core Belief Violation and Meaning Making Associated with Post-Traumatic Growth?

“…Since the outbreak of the pandemic, numerous studies have investigated the worldwide negative impact of COVID-19 on mental health [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Both the pandemic and the strict measures implemented for its containment (i.e., social distancing, self-isolation, stringent hygiene procedures, and lockdown) have disrupted people's lives and well-being in nearly every nation [9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Among the detrimental consequences are the documented increase in symptoms such as stress, anxiety, depression, psychosomatic problems, and insomnia which, on the one hand, have been found to pose serious risk factors for mental health [16][17][18][19][20][21], and on the other hand, have aggravated the already high socio-economic burden of the pandemic (e.g., rising unemployment rate and loss of productivity) [19,22].…”

Linguistic Predictors of Psychological Adjustment in Healthcare Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Coping with the crisis posed significant challenges for national healthcare systems. The sum of these factors generated negative effects and physiological and mental health issues among both the general population [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] and healthcare workers (HCWs) [11][12][13][14][15]. Front-line medical staff came under both physical and psychological pressure.…”