How socio-institutional contexts and cultural worldviews relate to COVID-19 acceptance rates: A representative study in Italy.

RATIONALE: Despite its importance to counter the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination has raised hesitation in large segments of the population. This hesitation makes it important to understand the mechanisms underlying vaccine acceptance. To this end, the study adopts the Semiotic Cultural Psychology Theory, holding that social behaviors - and therefore, vaccination acceptance - depend on the cultural meanings in terms of which people interpret the social world. OBJECTIVE: The study aims at estimating the impact a) of the way people interpret the socio-institutional context of the pandemic and b) of the underlying cultural worldviews on vaccine acceptance. More particularly, the study tested the three following hypotheses. a) The meanings grounding the interpretation of the socio-institutional framework - that is, trust in institutions and political values - are an antecedent of vaccination acceptance. b) The impact of these meanings is moderated by the cultural worldviews (operationalized as symbolic universes). And c), the magnitude of the symbolic universes' moderator effect depends on the uncertainty to which the respondent is exposed. The exposure to uncertainty was estimated in terms of socioeconomic status - the lower the status, the high the exposure to uncertainty. METHODS: An Italian representative sample (N = 3020) completed a questionnaire, measuring vaccination acceptance, the meanings attributed to the socio-institutional context - that is, political values and trust in institutions - and symbolic universes. RESULTS: The findings were consistent with the hypotheses. a) Structural equation modelling proved that vaccine acceptance was predicted by trust in institutions. b) Multigroup analysis revealed that symbolic universes moderated the correlation between trust in institutions and vaccine acceptance. And c), the moderation effect of symbolic universes proved to occur only in the segment of lower socio-economic status (i.e., the group exposed to higher uncertainty). CONCLUSIONS: Vaccination acceptance is not only a medical issue; it is also dependent upon the rationalization of the socio-institutional context. Implications for the promotion of vaccination acceptance are discussed.

An Integrated Model of Compliance with COVID-19 Prescriptions: Instrumental, Normative, and Affective Factors Associated with Health-Protective Behaviors.

BACKGROUND: The efficacy of public measures for reducing the transmission of the COVID-19 infection relies on citizens' voluntary adherence with prescribed actions. Drawing on prior literature about compliant behavior, this study aimed to identify factors associated with people engagement in health-protective behaviors by including a conjoint complement of instrumental/self-oriented, normative/community-based, and affective variables. METHOD: A cross-sectional study involving a non-representative sample of 4045 Italian citizens was carried out during the first stage of the pandemic (April-May 2020). Variables associated with health-protective behaviors were perceived personal and societal concerns and perceived effectiveness of the institutional response to the outbreak (instrumental dimensions), and family and friends perceived norms and sense of community responsibility (normative dimensions). Two negative emotions (anxiety and fear) were included as mediators between personal and societal concerns and outcome behaviors. RESULTS: Results showed the importance of both self-interest and community-based factors. Indeed, self-interest concerns, family perceived norms, and sense of community responsibility were significant predictors of people's decisions to engage in health-protective behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: The research findings show that compliance with public health prescriptions is a multimodal phenomenon and integrating self-interest and community-based factors can offer a better understanding of people's decision to engage in health-protective behaviors. Further, this study unveils that a shared sense of community is effective in encouraging adherence to recommended behaviors so as behavioral changes can be sustained by targeting the recommendations not only on risk minimization for oneself but also on the allocation of personal responsibility toward the belonging community.

The potential of psychological connectedness: Mitigating the impacts of COVID-19 through sense of community and community resilience.

The purpose of this study was to identify patterns of relationships connecting sense of community (SOC) and community resilience with psychological wellbeing, via the mediation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) impacts on life domains. Survey data were collected from an international sample of adults (n = 824) during the COVID-19 outbreak (June-September 2020). Using a structural equation model, we tested a mediation model to identify the associations between SOC and community resilience with the perceived impacts of the emergency situation and with psychological wellbeing. Results revealed that SOC mitigated the impacts of COVID-19 on multiple life domains, and it was also positively associated with wellbeing. Community resilience was correlated with SOC and wellbeing but showed no significant relationship with COVID-19 impacts. The findings support that SOC has a protective function and can contribute to mitigating the impacts of difficult life situations. SOC can also be leveraged as an intervention aimed at protecting the wellbeing of people and communities, particularly in times of crisiss.

Sense making processes and social representations of COVID-19 in multi-voiced public discourse: Illustrative examples of institutional and media communication in ten countries

The role of communication in a pandemic emergency is crucial because it contributes to the spread of collective interpretations of the crisis that drive community responses. Based on the social representations' theory approach, and specifically relying on the notions of collective symbolic coping and polemical social representations, the study presents 10 country-based case studies of public communication with the aim of exploring the social representations of COVID-19 during the first wave of the outbreak. Multiple communication sources from 10 countries in 5 geo-cultural contexts (Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa) were selected and analyzed: institutional websites;international/national/local newspapers and news channels;national/international press agencies;and social media platforms. Results highlighted the prevalence of multivocality and polemical social representations, along with outgroup blaming and stigmatization processes, the use of military and naturalistic metaphors, antinomies, and discourse polarization. Implications for effective public communication in crisis management are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Prosocial behaviours under collective quarantine conditions. A latent class analysis study during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in Italy.

We aimed to identify the patterns of prosocial behaviours under collective quarantine conditions. Survey data were collected from a sample of Italian adults during the March May 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in Italy. Participants reported on offline and online prosocial behaviours, sense of community responsibility (SoC-R) and perceptions of community resilience. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used for data analysis. A total of 4,045 participants completed the survey, and 2,562 were eligible (72% female; mean age 38.7 years). LCA revealed four classes of prosocial behaviours: Money donors (7%), Online and offline helpers (59%), Online health information sharers (21%) and Neighbour helpers (13%). The classes were partially invariant across age groups (18-35 and 35-65 years). Being a man, having achieved a higher educational level and higher SoC-R scores were associated with belonging to the Online and offline helper class. The members of this class also reported the greatest perceptions of community resilience. The results provide insight on the multidimensionality of prosociality under collective quarantine conditions. Online and offline helpers could be targeted for promoting sustained altruism and involvement in community organisations. For the other groups, programmes should aim at eliminating barriers to help others in multiple ways. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.