Understanding face mask use to prevent coronavirus and other illnesses: Development of a multidimensional face mask perceptions scale

Abstract

Face masks are an avenue to curb the spread of coronavirus, but few people in Western societies wear face masks. Social scientists have rarely studied face mask wearing, leaving little guidance for methods to encourage these behaviours. In the current article, we provide an approach to address this issue by developing the 32-item and 8-dimension Face Mask Perceptions Scale (FMPS). We begin by developing an over-representative item list in a qualitative study, wherein participants' responses are used to develop items to ensure content relevance. This item list is then reduced via exploratory factor analysis in a second study, and the eight dimensions of the scale are supported. We also support the validity of the FMPS, as the scale significantly relates to both face mask wearing and health perceptions. We lastly confirm the factor structure of the FMPS in a third study via confirmatory factor analysis. From these efforts, we identify an avenue that social scientists can aid in preventing coronavirus and illness more broadlyby studying face mask perceptions and behaviours. Statement of Contribution What is already known on this subject? Face masks are an avenue to curb the spread of coronavirus. Few in Western societies wear face masks. Little is known on how to encourage face mask wearing. What does this study add? We create and support the Face Mask Perceptions Scale (FMPS). We identify that eight primary face mask perceptions exist. The study of these eight perceptions can lead to effective interventions for face mask wearing. The number of worldwide coronavirus cases has now exceeded 7,000,000, and over 400,000 known individuals have died from coronavirus (BBC, 2020a). The global scientific community is fervently pursuing medical advancements to treat coronavirus,

Development of a coronavirus social distance attitudes scale

“…These findings suggest there exists a distinct set of negative attitudes that are not simply the absence of positive attitudes [ 40 ]. A recent study describing attitudes toward mask use similarly identified separate factors related to perceived health benefits and personal freedom [ 41 ].…”

The vital role of health psychology in the response to COVID‐19

“…To date, we have published 17 COVID-19 papers (Bacon & Corr, 2020;Gibson Miller et al, 2020;Grover, McClelland, & Furnham, 2020;Horesh, Kapel Lev-Ari, & Hasson-Ohayon, 2020;Howard, 2020;Lades, Laffan, Daly, & Delaney, 2020;Lauri Korajlija & Jokic-Begic, 2020;Lin et al, 2020;Marinthe, Brown, Delouvee, & Jolley, 2020;McElroy et al, 2020;Niepel, Kranz, Borgonovi, Emslander, & Greiff, 2020;Norman, Wilding, & Conner, 2020;Olagoke, Olagoke, & Hughes, 2020;Rubaltelli, Tedaldi, Orabona, & Scrimin, 2020;Shevlin et al, 2020;Williams et al, 2020), which have addressed a variety of topics including: the use theoretical models (COM-B and social cognition models) to understand and predict COVID-19 health behaviours (Gibson Miller et al, 2020;Lin et al, 2020;Norman et al, 2020), risk perception (Niepel et al, 2020;Olagoke et al, 2020), and psychological distress (Horesh et al, 2020;Lades et al, 2020;McElroy et al, 2020;Shevlin et al, 2020). presented a systematic method for rapidly responding to priority SARS-CoV-2 policy questions.…”

Gender, face mask perceptions, and face mask wearing: Are men being dangerous during the COVID-19 pandemic?

“…Because no end to the pandemic is currently in sight, public health officials have called for the widespread adoption of preventative behaviors that can curb the spread of COVID-19. Among the most effective preventative behaviors is face mask wearing, which has been extensively supported to reduce airborne transmission of viruses ( Leung et al, 2020 ; O'Dowd et al, 2020 ); however, many people are resistant to face mask wearing despite the effectiveness of the practice, which poses extreme risks in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic ( Howard, 2020 ; Lyu & Wehby, 2020 ). These risks are exponentially heightened as more people refuse to wear face masks, because each unmasked person multiplicatively increases the likelihood of infecting each other ( Howard et al, 2020 ).…”