To comply or not comply? A latent profile analysis of behaviours and attitudes during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

How and why do people comply with protective behaviours during COVID-19? The emerging literature employs a variable-centered approach, typically using a narrow selection of constructs within a study. This study is the first to adopt a person-centred approach to identify complex patterns of compliance, and holistically examine underlying psychological differences, integrating multiple psychology paradigms and epidemiology. 1575 participants from Australia, US, UK, and Canada indicated their behaviours, attitudes, personality, cognitive/decision-making ability, resilience, adaptability, coping, political and cultural factors, and information consumption during the pandemic’s first wave. Using Latent Profile Analysis, two broad groups were identified. The compliant group (90%) reported greater worries, and perceived protective measures as effective, whilst the non-compliant group (about 10%) perceived them as problematic. The non-compliant group were lower on agreeableness and cultural tightness-looseness, but more extraverted, and reactant. They utilised more maladaptive coping strategies, checked/trusted the news less, and used official sources less. Females showed greater compliance than males. By promoting greater appreciation of the complexity of behaviour during COVID-19, this research provides a critical platform to inform future studies, public health policy, and targeted behaviour change interventions during pandemics. The results also challenge age-related stereotypes and assumptions.

Attitudes and Determinants of Mandatory Vaccination against COVID-19 among the General Population of Cyprus: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study

“…), information related to COVID-19 vaccination, sources of vaccines information, and participants’ general vaccine knowledge and attitudes towards mandatory vaccination. The questionnaire was developed by our research team, based on our previous research experience and extensive literature search [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. Prior to the actual study, face validity was tested in a small pilot study involving 50 participants to assess the clarity and the applicability of all items of the survey, as well as to address wording problems.…”

Promoting social distancing in a pandemic: Beyond good intentions

“…This study contributes to the literature on the effectiveness of reminders in promoting healthy behaviours ([ 10 – 15 ]). In particular, we relate directly to recent studies that have found impacts of reminders on people’s intentions to comply with regulations to curb the spread of COVID-19 ([ 23 – 26 ]) and have investigated the determinants of the adoption of protective behaviour regarding COVID-19 ([ 38 – 41 ]). We complement the literature on the impacts of behavioural tools by showing that intentions to comply may fail to translate into equivalent behavioural change.…”

Typologies of stress appraisal and problem-focused coping: associations with compliance with public health recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Moreover, we also did not directly measure high-level personality variables that might indicate membership in specific classes. Recent evidence using measures of the Big Five personality factors indicates that personality is crucial to understanding why certain people conform to public health measures during the pandemic [ 34 ].…”

“…However, to our knowledge, no research has examined primary appraisals and coping strategies simultaneously to identify typologies and then related them to PHBs. The spate of recent studies that examined compliance with public health recommendations has generally not done so within a stress-coping framework [ 18 , 33 , 34 ]. Moreover, to our knowledge, only one study on this subject used a person-centered approach to study PHBs during the pandemic [ 29 ], but the classification strategy was applied to PHBs, not stress-coping.…”