Abstract
Higher education institutions (HEIs), among other social systems, have an irreplaceable role in combating COVID-19. However, we know little about institutional and individual factors that might facilitate university students’ beliefs and behaviors toward preventive behaviors for COVID-19 within the higher education context. Our study applies an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) model to investigate the structural relationships among the institutional climate, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and preventive behaviors of university students and to detect the moderating impacts of perceived risk on the structural model. Data were collected from 3693 university students at 18 universities in Beijing, China through an online survey. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and multigroup analysis were performed to examine the empirical model. The results reveal that (1) the institutional climate has a significant, direct effect on preventive behaviors for COVID-19 among university students, (2) the TPB components, namely attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, partially mediate the relationship between the institutional climate and preventive behaviors for COVID-19, and (3) perceived risk moderates several paths in the model. Theoretical and practical implications are offered, and recommendations for future research are outlined.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world and has been deemed the most devastating disease since the Spanish Flu in 1918–1919 [1]
To overcome the limitations of existing studies, our study explicitly identifies the impacts of the institutional climate, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and perceived risk of university students’ COVID-19 preventive behaviors based on an extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) model
The present study demonstrated that the main variables in the research model, including the institutional climate, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and perceived risk, played critical roles in predicting university students’ preventive behaviors against COVID-19
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world and has been deemed the most devastating disease since the Spanish Flu in 1918–1919 [1]. By the end of January 2021, COVID-19 caused over one hundred million confirmed infections and two million deaths worldwide [2]. The first confirmed case was identified in Wuhan in December. 2019, and the disease rapidly spread to other parts of China, through strict and effective 4.0/).
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