Abstract
BackgroundAge related differences were found in prevention behavior, showing that older individuals tend to be the most proactive. The aim of the study was the identification of psychological predictors on COVID-19 prevention behavior in women, across four generations. In addition, the predictive role of the psychological variables was explored through the lens of negative and positive information processing perspective on total and domain-specific COVID-19 prevention behavior.MethodsA cross-sectional research was conducted. The sample included 834 Hungarian speaking women. The assessed variables were: COVID-19 knowledge, risk perception, COVID-19 health anxiety, negative automatic thoughts, psychological flexibility, and four domains of COVID-19 prevention behavior (social distancing, general hygiene, information seeking, health behavior). A three-level hierarchical linear regression analysis was conducted to investigate the predictors of preventive behavior in each generation.ResultsA diversity across generations was found. In case of baby boomer generation, the final model explained 32.4% of the variance for total prevention behavior [F(14,215) = 8.847, p < 0.001], and only perceived risk made a significant contribution. For Gen X the final model accounted for 21.1% of variance of total prevention behavior [F(14,341) = 7.788, p < 0.001], marital status, perceived risk, COVID-19 health anxiety, and negative automatic thoughts made significant contributions. In case of Gen Y the final model accounted for 6.2% of variance on total prevention behavior [F(14,147) = 1.761, p = 0.05], only perceived risk had a contribution to the final model. For Gen Z the final model accounted for 23.4% of variance on total preventive behavior [F(13,71) = 2.979, p = 0.002], and only psychological flexibility made a contribution to the model. The results on the distinct domains of COVID-19 prevention behavior emphasized details in the dissimilarity among generations.ConclusionThe role of generational identity on COVID-19 prevention behavior is relevant. The coexistence of negative and positive information processing may have its beneficial role in certain areas of prevention.
Highlights
On the 11th of March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the onset of a worldwide COVID19 pandemic
Prevention behavior is a list of actions linked to general hygiene, social distancing, healthy lifestyle, and can include any activity undertaken by a person who believes himself to be healthy for the purpose of preventing or detecting illness in an incipient state (Kasl and Cobb, 1966)
A priori power analysis via G∗Power3 (Faul et al, 2007) for hierarchical linear regression based on type I error with a p-value of 0.05 and statistical power of 0.80 with four tested predictors showed that for a medium effect size (f 2 = 0.15) the required sample size is n = 85, while for a small effect size (f 2 = 0.02) the required sample size is n = 602
Summary
On the 11th of March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the onset of a worldwide COVID19 pandemic. Personal responsibility and the degree of individual precautionary and preventive behavior can stop/delay unwanted consequences. World Health Organization (2019, 2020a) instructions in this pandemic were repeated and globally mediatized especially in relation to social distancing and hygienic guidelines. Social distancing (Abdelrahman, 2020; Iwaya et al, 2020) and hygiene (Li et al, 2020) were prioritized, but other important prevention domains like information seeking or health behavior/healthy lifestyle were less analyzed during this ongoing pandemic. The predictive role of the psychological variables was explored through the lens of negative and positive information processing perspective on total and domain-specific COVID-19 prevention behavior
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
