Self-protective Behaviour Among Young Adults During Public Health Crisis
Purpose:
The purpose of this article is to examine perceptions of factors deriving from the theory of planned behaviour among younger adults in times of public health crisis, their self-protective behaviour compared to other age groups, and test the predictive factors according to the theory of planned behaviour.
Design/Methods/Approach:
An online survey has been conducted to examine self-protective behaviour in times of public health crisis. The survey was distributed to Slovenian citizens (n = 280) using the social network Facebook. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample and measured variables. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine associations between identified factors.
Findings:
The results of the study indicate that there are no significant differences in self-reported self-protection between younger adults and others. Additionally, attitude toward self-protective measures is the most important predictor of self-protective behaviour for both age groups. Only the attitude is significantly associated with self-protective behaviour among young adults, whereas among others, all three predictors are significantly associated with self-protective behaviour, explaining nearly twice the variance.
Research Limitations / Implications:
This research contributes to the understanding of motivators that drive individuals to engage in self-protective behaviour in times of health crises. It provides insight into young adults’ self-protective behaviour. Most of the limitations are related to the sample, which only contains respondents from one social network and one country.
Originality/Value:
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that explored the self-protective behaviour of young adults during COVID-19 using the theory of planned behaviour and compares the differences in self-protective behaviour predictors among different age groups.
UDC: 316.62-053.6:614.44-053.1
Keywords: COVID-19, theory of planned behaviour, young adults, self-protection