COVID-19 vaccine intention: Prospective and concurrent tests of a disposition-belief-motivation framework.

OBJECTIVE: The present study tested a novel integration of prospective and concurrent associations of demographic factors, traits, political orientation, coping strategies, infection and preventive beliefs, preventive behaviors, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms, exposure, and viral testing with COVID-19 vaccine intention. METHOD: The preregistered study used a stratified online U.S. sample (N = 500). Three assessments were aligned with (a) "15 days to slow the spread" in March 2020, (b) the first mortality surge in April/May 2020, and (c) the vaccine authorization and major case/mortality surge during December 2020 and January 2021. RESULTS: Consistent with contemporaneous polling in December 2020, 66.4% of participants indicated they intended to receive an approved vaccine. Allowing for covarying interrelations, path modeling showed direct associations of greater education (ß = .11, p < .01), the absence of child(ren) in the household (ß = -.14, p < .001), more liberal political orientation (ß = -.17, p < .001), stronger concurrent perceived norms for preventive behaviors (ß = .23, p < .001), and more frequent concurrent mask wearing (ß = .23, p < .001) with stronger vaccine intention. Prospective and concurrent trait, coping strategy, and sickness experience measures were not associated with intention. CONCLUSIONS: The close alignment of assessments with the public health timeline and the prospective and concurrent design provide needed clarity for the effects of stable demographic and dispositional factors (educational, parental, ideological) and more malleable preventive beliefs and behaviors, indicating potentially fruitful pathways to bolster novel vaccine intention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Spring 2020 COVID-19 Surge: Prospective Relations between Demographic Factors, Personality Traits, Social Cognitions and Guideline Adherence, Mask Wearing, and Symptoms in a U.S. Sample.

BACKGROUND: To date, much of the research on individual difference correlates of coronavirus guideline adherence is cross-sectional, leaving prospective associations between these factors unaddressed. Additionally, investigations of prospective predictors of mask-wearing, COVID-19 symptoms, and viral testing remain wanting. PURPOSE: The present study examined prospective relations between demographic factors, personality traits, social cognitions and guideline adherence, mask-wearing, symptoms, and viral testing in a U.S. sample (N = 500) during the initial surge of COVID-19 deaths in the United State between late March and early May 2020. METHODS: Guided by a disposition-belief-motivation framework, correlational analyses, and path models tested associations among baseline personality traits, guideline adherence social cognitions, health beliefs, guideline adherence and follow-up guideline adherence, mask-wearing, symptom counts, and 30-day viral testing. RESULTS: Modeling results showed greater baseline agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion were associated with more frequent baseline guideline adherence. More liberal political beliefs, greater guideline adherence intentions, and more frequent guideline adherence at baseline predicted more frequent mask-wearing at follow-up. Sex (female), lower perceived health, and greater neuroticism at baseline predicted greater symptom counts at follow-up. Reports of viral testing were quite low (1.80%), yet were consistent with concurrent national reporting and limited availability of testing. CONCLUSIONS: Results show how inconsistencies and politicization of health policy communication were concomitant with the effects of individual-level political beliefs on mask-wearing during the initial surge. The results further clarify how personality traits related to social responsibility (i.e., agreeableness, conscientiousness) are associated with following new norms for prescribed behaviors and how symptom reporting can be as much a marker of perceived health as emotional stability.

Demographic, personality, and social cognition correlates of coronavirus guideline adherence in a U.S. sample.

OBJECTIVE: The present study examined patterns and psychosocial correlates of coronavirus guideline adherence in a U.S. sample (N = 500) during the initial 15-day period advocated by the White House Coronavirus Task Force. METHOD: Descriptive and correlational analyses were used to examine the frequency of past 7-day adherence to each of 10 guidelines, as well as overall adherence. Guided by a disposition-belief-motivation model of health behavior, path analyses tested associations of personality traits and demographic factors to overall adherence via perceived norms, perceived control, attitudes, and self-efficacy related to guideline adherence, as well as perceived exposure risk and perceived health consequence if exposed. RESULTS: Adherence ranged from 94.4% reporting always avoiding eating/drinking inside bars/restaurants/food courts to 13.6% reporting always avoiding touching one's face. Modeling showed total associations with overall adherence for greater conscientiousness (ß = .191, p < .001), openness (ß = .098, p < .05), perceptions of social endorsement (ß = .202, p < .001), positive attitudes (ß = .105, p < .05), self-efficacy (ß = .234, p < .001), and the presence versus absence or uncertainty of a shelter-in-place order (ß = .102, p < .01). Age, self-rated health, sex, education, income, children in the household, agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism, perceived exposure risk, and perceived health consequence showed null-to-negligible associations with overall adherence. CONCLUSIONS: The results clarify adherence frequency, highlight characteristics associated with greater adherence, and suggest the need to strengthen the social contract between government and citizenry by clearly communicating adherence benefits, costs, and timelines. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).