Psychological Burden during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Female Caregivers of Preterm versus Term Born Children.

BACKGROUND: during the COVID-19 pandemic, psychological burden increased. Contact restrictions were predominantly stressful for families. Parenthood was reported to be especially challenging for parents of preterm children. MATERIAL AND METHODS: a cross-sectional online-based survey on the psychological burden of parents of preterm and full-term born infants and toddlers during the second lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany was offered by social media, webpages, etc. Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2), COVID-19 Anxiety (C-19-A), COVID-19-related child protection behavior (PB) were used. RESULTS: 2742 parents-predominantly females-took part in the study, 2025 parents of full-term and 717 parents of preterm born children. Female caregivers of full-term children reported significantly more depression symptoms than those of preterm children during the second lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. The PB correlated with increased COVID-19 anxiety as well as with increased generalized anxiety and depression symptoms. Female caregivers of preterm children showed significantly more protection behavior than those of full-term born children.

Impacts of COVID-19 on Pakistan Society: Home Confinement, Social Survey Data and Maps Showing Diffusion

The purposes of this chapter are threefold: to discuss the impact of home confinement due to the pandemic, to analyze the results of a social survey about the impact of the pandemic on the general public, and to present maps showing the spread of virus in Pakistan. Not only in Pakistan, but throughout the world, the outcomes of the pandemic were mainly related to psychological and health issues. Emergency situations in global policy, such as pandemics, impact both physical and mental health. A country like Pakistan, which was already fragile and struggling from deflation, was badly affected by the lockdown imposed by the pandemic outbreak. Home confinement during the lockdown period severely impacted the health and economic conditions of communities at large. The effect is discussed in detail in this chapter. In a similar vein, a community-based survey was conducted of 1043 people residing in different areas in Pakistan. The purpose of the survey was to check the behavioral concerns of people towards the pandemic and their safety behavior. The variables used were adapted from existing studies and questions and modified to address the issues in this survey. The last section of this chapter discusses, with GIS maps, how the virus spread throughout the country. The survey instrument provided a general understanding of safety concerns of the people. GIS maps at provincial levels were generated to depict the spread of virus during the peak times of the pandemic. The chapter provides a clear picture of the country during the pandemic times and serves as a reference to understand the social side of pandemic in the country. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Relationship among leadership styles, employee's well-being and employee's safety behavior: an empirical evidence of COVID-19 from the frontline healthcare workers

The study investigates the association among leadership styles, employee well-being and employee's safety behavior of healthcare workers. The study used social learning theory (SLT) for examining the relationship between leadership styles and employee safety behavior. Moreover, social exchange theory (SET) has been incorporated to narrate the moderating effect of employee well-being on the relationship between leadership styles and employee safety behavior. Data have been collected with the help of questionnaires from 515 healthcare workers working in the public hospitals of Punjab, Pakistan. Structural equation modeling has been utilized to test the study hypothesis. Findings indicate that both transactional and transformational leaderships have significant and positive relationship with employee safety behavior. Interestingly, employee well-being negatively moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and employee safety behavior. Furthermore, no moderation was found on the relationship between transactional leadership and employee safety behavior. The findings propose that healthcare management should invest to aware employees regarding their well-being. The findings also suggest that leaders should influence their followers to adopt safety measures at workplace. Furthermore, leaders must be role models in order to attain a competitive advantage and make a balance between management and workers. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keeping Employees Safe During Health Crises: The Effects of Media Exposure, HR Practices, and Age.

Occupational health and safety are critical in promoting the wellness of organizations and employees. The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most life-threatening viruses encountered in recent history, providing a unique opportunity for research to examine factors that drive employee safety behavior. Drawing from terror management theory, we propose and test a moderated mediation model using data collected from employees working during a peak of the pandemic. We identify two sources of influence - one external (i.e., media exposure), and one internal (i.e., HR practices) to the organization - that shape employees' mortality salience and safety behaviors. We find that COVID-19 HR practices significantly moderate the relationship between daily COVID-19 media exposure and mortality salience, with media exposure positively associated with mortality salience at lower levels of HR practices but its effects substituted by higher levels of HR practices. Moreover, our results also show that mortality salience spurs safety behaviors, with age moderating this relationship such that younger - but not older - employees are more likely to engage in safety behaviors due to mortality salience. Taken together, we offer theoretical implications for the safety behavior literature and practical implications for organizations faced with health crises or having employees who commonly work in hazardous conditions.

Interplay between Safety Climate and Emotional Exhaustion: Effects on First Responders' Safety Behavior and Wellbeing Over Time.

Various job demands continuously threaten Emergency Medical Service (EMS) first responders' safety and wellbeing. Drawing on Job Demands-Resources Theory, the present study examines the effects of the organizational context-safety climate-and the psychological context-emotional exhaustion-on safety behaviors and wellbeing over time. We tested our hypotheses in a longitudinal study of 208 EMS first responders nested within 45 stations from three fire departments in US metropolitan areas over 6 months during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Multilevel modeling showed that the relationship between safety climate and safety compliance behaviors can be attenuated when EMS first responders experience high emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion was also negatively associated with morale while safety climate was positively associated with morale. Additionally, EMS first responders experienced increased depression when their emotional exhaustion levels were high. Higher safety climate was associated with decreased depression when emotional exhaustion was within a low-to-medium range. Higher safety climate was also associated with lower absolute levels of depression across the entire range of emotional exhaustion. These findings suggest that promoting safety climate and mitigating emotional exhaustion can augment EMS first responders' safety behaviors and wellbeing.].

Longitudinal trajectories of coronavirus anxiety and health behavior use before and after the U.S. 2020 presidential election: The effects of political orientation.

Although heightened anxiety and health behavior use (i.e., masking, hand washing) may be viewed as an adaptive response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, it is unclear how the politicization of the pandemic has influenced the trajectory of such responses. Accordingly, the present study examined differences between those that identify as more conservative or liberal in the trajectory of anxiety and health behaviors during the pandemic. This study also examines shifts in this trajectory before and after the presidential election. As part of a larger study, participants (N = 374) completed a symptom survey starting on May 27, 2020 every 2 weeks for a total of 15 timepoints over 30 weeks. The findings showed that more conservative participants reported lower levels of COVID-19 anxiety and less health behavior use compared to more liberal participants. In fact, anxiety levels increased slightly for more liberal participants and decreased slightly for more conservative participants during the pre-election time frame. Health behavior use also decreased more rapidly for conservative participants than for liberal participants during the pre-election time frame. However, COVID-19 anxiety and health behavior use rose sharply and similarly for both liberal and conservative individuals after the election. Importantly, these patterns were independent of state level variability in COVID-19 positivity and death rates. Subsequent analysis also revealed significant relations between COVID-19 anxiety and health behavior use that was slightly stronger among conservatives. Implications of these findings for navigating the influence of political ideology on anxiety-related responses during a public health emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed.

The Double-Edged Sword of Safety Training for Safety Behavior: The Critical Role of Psychological Factors during COVID-19.

Safety training (ST) is the primary means of avoiding unsafe behaviors, but it has not achieved the expected impact on improving workplace safety because of the high psychological stress it brings to workers. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) further threatens workers' psychological conditions, thereby diminishing the effectiveness of ST. However, the existing literature has mainly laid emphasis on the bright side of ST and neglected examining its impact on safety behavior (SB) from detrimental psychological factors. Drawing from the conservation of resources theory, a novel two-staged model was established to understand how these psychological factors mediate and moderate the association between ST and SB. We incorporated resource consumption (e.g., role overload (RO) and COVID-19-related task setbacks) and resource generation (e.g., psychological resilience) into the model to consider both detrimental and protective psychological factors against ST. We then implemented a time-separated, three-wave data collection on a sample of frontline workers to validate this hypothetical model. Consistent with our hypothesis, RO played a significant mediating role between ST and SB, that is, ST leads to RO, and in turn, holds up SB. Surprisingly, contrary to our hypothesis, COVID-19-related task setbacks weakened the negative and indirect impact of ST on SB via RO. This is one of the first empirical studies to highlight how detrimental psychological factors caused by ST constrict or amplify SB. In practice, the efficacy of ST can be enhanced by cultivating psychological resilience and clarifying employees' job responsibilities to reduce the ambiguity of roles.

TidyHome: A Persuasive App for Supporting Victims and Survivors of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a prevalent issue affecting women worldwide. This issue has been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. While several measures have been attempted to address domestic violence, the use of technology has been shown to provide support for victims when planning for their safety. In this paper, we designed a persuasive mobile app, called TidyHome, targeted at women ages 15–49 years who are victims or survivors of domestic or intimate partner violence. The app addresses the issue of domestic violence with the aim of promoting safety behavior and safety consciousness in victims and survivors of domestic violence. To achieve this, we followed a user-centered design approach. Specifically, we obtained user preferences by conducting focus group sessions to gather ideas and opinions on features to be implemented in the app. We then designed low-fidelity prototypes (LFP) illustrating various features of TidyHome based on our findings from the focus group. Thereafter, we conducted a user study evaluating the LFP and assessing the perceived persuasiveness of the features illustrated in the LFP. Based on the results obtained from the LFP evaluation, we designed high-fidelity prototypes (HFP) reflecting only the features perceived as significantly persuasive. Finally, we conducted an evaluation of the HFP assessing its usability, and refined the HFP based on qualitative feedback after thematic analysis. Our results indicate that 8 features of the app were considered persuasive and very relevant for supporting female victims of domestic violence (Knowledge-Box, Panic Button, Third Ear, Meditime, Daily Companion, Diary, Encourage, and Self-Discovery). Likewise, the results display that the TidyHome app shows effective usability and user experience. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Increased Safety Behavior and COVID-19-Related Fear in Adults with Cystic Fibrosis during the Pandemic.

People with cystic fibrosis (pwCF) face great challenges during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Recent research found equal levels of distress in pwCF and healthy controls (HC). The current study aimed to investigate the mental health burden and safety behavior in pwCF. Sixty-nine adult pwCF and sixty-nine propensity-score-matched HC participated in this study. Participants completed an anonymous online questionnaire assessing distress, generalized anxiety, depressive symptoms, COVID-19-related variables, self-reported adherent safety behavior (ASB), and dysfunctional safety behavior (DSB). PwCF showed equal amounts of distress (W = 2481.0, p = 0.669), depressive symptoms (W = 2632.5, p = 0.268), and generalized anxiety symptoms (W = 2515.5, p = 0.565) compared to the HC. COVID-19-related fear (W = 1872.0, p = 0.028), ASB (W = 1630.0, p = 0.001), and DSB (W = 1498.5, p < 0.001) were significantly elevated in pwCF. The pwCF estimated that the probability of suffering from symptoms (W = 954.5, p < 0.001), experiencing a severe course (W = 806.5, p < 0.001), or dying (W = 1079.0, p < 0.001) from COVID-19 is significantly higher than that of the HC. ASB was associated with a CF diagnosis, COVID-19-related fear, and a subjective level of information (R2 = 0.414, F(13, 124) = 6.936, p ≤ 0.001). DSB was associated with a diagnosis of CF and COVID-19-related fear (R2 = 0.196, F(13, 124) = 3.169, p ≤ 0.001). The data suggest that pwCF show functional and adequate behaviors towards the risk caused by the pandemic. Therefore, functional coping behaviors may provide advantages in addressing pandemic challenges.

Dual-Path Effect of Mortality Salience Induced by COVID-19 on Food Safety Behavior in China.

During the pandemic, the mortality salience of COVID-19 has affected everyone. The public is extremely sensitive to food safety, especially cold chain food and imported food. This research is based on the terror management theory, protective motivation theory, and self-construal theory. It proposes an integrated dual-path framework to explore the different mechanisms that mortality salience has on food safety behavior. The result of three experiments verified our conjectures. First, mortality salience positively affects individuals' food safety behavior. More importantly, we found the dual-path mechanism that underlies the effect, that is, the mediating of self-protective motivation and prosocial motivation. In addition, different self-construals make the confirmed effect clear. These findings provide implications for the government to protect public food safety and health.

High Safety Risk Assessment in the Time of Uncertainties (COVID-19): An Industrial Context.

Background: The complexities of the workplace environment in the downstream oil and gas industry contain several safety-risk factors. In particular, instituting stringent safety standards and management procedures are considered insufficient to address workplace safety risks. Most accident cases attribute to unsafe actions and human behaviors on the job, which raises serious concerns for safety professionals from physical to psychological particularly when the world is facing a life-threatening Pandemic situation, i.e., COVID-19. It is imperative to re-examine the safety management of facilities and employees' well-being in the downstream oil and gas production sector to establish a sustainable governance system. Understanding the inherent factors better that contribute to safety behavior management could significantly improve workplace safety features. Objective: This study investigates employees' safety behavior management model for the downstream oil and gas industry to consolidate the safety, health and wellbeing of employees in times of COVID-19. Methods: Nominal Group Technique (NGT) was first employed to screen primary behavioral factors from 10 workplace health and safety experts from Malaysia's downstream oil and gas industry. Consequently, 18 significant factors were identified for further inquiry. Next, the interpretive structural modeling technique was used to ascertain the complex interrelationships between these factors and proposed a Safety Behavioral Management Model for cleaner production. Results: This model shows that management commitment, employee knowledge and training, leadership, and regulations contribute significantly to several latent factors. Our findings support the Social Cognitive Theory, where employees, their environment, and their behaviors are related reciprocally. Conclusion: It is postulated that identifying safety factors and utilizing the proposed model guides various stakeholder groups in this industry, including practitioners and policymakers, for achieving long-term sustainability.

The Impact of Job Burnout on Employees' Safety Behavior Against the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Psychological Contract.

Employee safety behavior is critical for occupational health in work environments threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the widespread and increasingly serious job burnout of employees is a complex and difficult problem for enterprises to handle during any epidemic. Therefore, it is helpful to identify and discuss job burnout and other main psychological factors that affect safety behavior to find appropriate solutions. Using the PLS-SEM method, the study explored the relationship between job burnout and safety behavior against the epidemic, as well as the mediating role of psychological contract. According to the local guidelines for controlling COVID-19, this study revised the safety behavior scale. Data were collected by structured questionnaires in May to July 2020 from Chinese employees (N = 353) who resumed their work after the outbreak of the pandemic. The findings confirmed that job burnout has a negative impact on safety behavior, and psychological contract play a partial mediating role in mitigating the negative impact. Specifically, the transaction dimension and relationship dimension of psychological contract negatively affected safety behavior while the development dimension of the psychological contract was not directly related to safety behavior. It is suggested that enterprises should take effective measures to reduce employees' job burnout and implement flexible psychological contract management and intervention, so as to effectively improve the performance of work safety behavior. Based on the multidimensional model, the findings of this study shed light on promoting safety behavior to prevent the spread of epidemics.

How dialogic internal communication fosters employees' safety behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As employees return to the workplace amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring safety and health at work remains a top priority for organizations. Grounded in dialogic theory and protection motivation theory, this study examines how dialogic communication, as a type of strategic internal communication, can encourage employees to engage in safety behaviors in the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic via heightened efficacy and perceived threat. An online survey of full-time employees of different industries returning to the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic is conducted. Results suggest that the communal relationship of employees with their organization, influenced by dialogic internal communication, fosters their efficacy and perceived threat of COVID-19 in the workplace, which in turn increases their safety behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications for public relations and internal communication studies are discussed.

Social cognitive factors outweigh negative emotionality in predicting COVID-19 related safety behaviors.

Emotion-motivation models propose that behaviors, including health behaviors, should be predicted by the same variables that also predict negative affect since emotional reactions should induce a motivation to avoid threatening situations. In contrast, social cognitive models propose that safety behaviors are predicted by a different set of variables that mainly reflect cognitive and socio-structural aspects. Here, we directly tested these opposing hypotheses in young adults (N = 4134) in the context of COVID-19-related safety behaviors to prevent infections. In each participant, we collected measures of negative affect as well as cognitive and socio-structural variables during the lockdown in the first infection wave in Germany. We found a negative effect of the pandemic on emotional responses. However, this was not the main predictor for young adults' willingness to comply with COVID-19-related safety measures. Instead, individual differences in compliance were mainly predicted by cognitive and socio-structural variables. These results were confirmed in an independent data set. This study shows that individuals scoring high on negative affect during the pandemic are not necessarily more likely to comply with safety regulations. Instead, political measures should focus on cognitive interventions and the societal relevance of the health issue. These findings provide important insights into the basis of health-related concerns and feelings as well as behavioral adaptations.

COVID-19-Fear Affects Current Safety Behavior Mediated by Neuroticism-Results of a Large Cross-Sectional Study in Germany.

Objectives: Although many research studies concerning changes in personality and behavior in time of COVID-19 pandemic emerged, important questions still have not been answered. This study with a large sample aimed to give insights into the impact of personality on pandemic fear and behavior by investigating the Big Five traits, COVID-19-fear, and associated behavioral changes in a large German-speaking sample. Methods: About 14,048 healthy respondents (65.5% female, 34.2% male, and 0.32% other gender/gender queer; range = 18-85 years, median age 35-44 years) participated in the survey during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two scales, "adherent" safety behavior (ASB, α = 0.857) and "dysfunctional" safety behavior (DSB, α = 0.876), three items each, measured pandemic-associated behavior. The Big Five Inventory-10 (BFI-10) tested personality traits. Results: While ASB correlated negatively with extraversion (rho = -0.053, ≤ 0.001), the other four traits were positively associated, with the highest association for neuroticism (rho = 0.116, ≤ 0.001), whereas neuroticism showed a positive correlation (rho = 0.142, ≤ 0.001) with DSB, extraversion (rho = -0.042, ≤ 0.001), agreeableness (rho = -0.028, ≤ 0.001), and conscientiousness (rho = -0.025, ≤ 0.001) correlated negatively with it. Regression analyses showed a small extent of the effect of personality traits. Moreover, neuroticism mediated the association between COVID-19-fear and DSB (positive-directed). Conclusions: Even though our results on correlations between personality, pandemic fear, and related behavior are in line with the existing literature studies, the analyses clearly show that the impact of personality traits, including neuroticism, on pandemic behavior is very small. Rather, pandemic fear has a much larger influence on the safety behavior mediated through neuroticism. Further studies should bear in mind that personality traits can not only have influencing effects but also mediating effects.

Community Safety Behavior in Response to Coronavirus Pandemic.

The purpose of this study is to explore the behavior and lifestyle of individuals in response to the coronavirus that the safety behavior of people in the coronavirus disease of 2019 pandemic. Hence, the study integrates the theory of planned behavior and the health belief model to understand the behavioral change in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The current study is qualitative therefore, a survey-based online questionnaire was used for data collection from university students and staff (faculty and nonfaculty) residing in top-tier cities of Pakistan, nonprobability convenient sampling was used to approach the audience. A two-stage approach was used to test the model using partial least square (variance-based structural equation modeling). The reliability and validity of the measurement model indicate that the data is reliable and valid. Outcomes prove all the relationships as proposed by the study, except for the impact of perceived barriers on intention and individual safety behavior. Perceived barriers act as obstacles that abstain individuals from following the standard operating procedures. The research agenda provides new insights into the fields of marketing, health care, consumer behavior, and behavioral studies. It contributes to the existing literature in the field of social marketing by studying the behavior and changes in the behavior of people in the global pandemic.

MAROCOVID: Snapshot Monitoring of Knowledge and Perceptions of Safety Behaviors during the COVID-19 Outbreak in Morocco.

To assess whether knowledge, attitude, and perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic predicted changes in behaviors among the general Moroccan population, a cross-sectional online survey was conducted between 30 March and 20 April involving a total of 14,157 participants. The statistical analysis of the data included univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Our results suggest that less than ten days after the Moroccan government announced "Health state of Emergency" response to the COVID-19 outbreak, public knowledge, attitude and responses to the pandemic were relatively high. More than half the respondents (63.2%) reported that they complied with more than five of nine recommended safety measures, including avoiding going out (93.2%), and frequent handwashing with soap and water (78.2%). Factors associated with an increased likelihood to adopt safety measures included perceptions that COVID-19 was a human health risk, the pandemic will continue for a long time, availability of clear information, and a lack of medicine. The largest predictor of safety behavior change was age; participants older than 55 were more likely to adopt recommended safety behaviors. Although knowledge and perception among the general public was reasonable, more encouragement from government via health education programs is needed to maintain appropriate behaviors.

Increased COVID-19-related fear and subjective risk perception regarding COVID-19 affects behavior in individuals with internal high-risk diseases.

Since December 2019, the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has been keeping the world in suspense. Proven risk factors for a severe course of COVID-19 are common diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular or respiratory disorders. Until today, little is known about the psychological burden of individuals suffering from these high-risk diseases regard to COVID-19. The aim of the study was to define the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on behavior and mental health in individuals at high risk for developing a severe COVID-19 course. Items assessed generalized anxiety (GAD-7), COVID-19-related fear, adherent/dysfunctional safety behavior, and the subjective risk perception of regarding symptoms, having a severe course and dying because of COVID-19. Data were compared between participants with the high risk diseases and individuals without any of those diseases. 16,983 respondents completed the study. Generalized anxiety, COVID-19-related fear, adherent/dysfunctional safety behavior and subjective risk perception were elevated in participants with high-risk diseases. The increased COVID-19-related fear as a functional concern is a conclusion on the increased risk of a severe course. The functionality of the fear is reflected in people's increased need for security and includes an increase in both adherent and dysfunctional safety behavior that underlines the need for psychological support strategies.

Different Correlates of COVID-19-Related Adherent and Dysfunctional Safety Behavior.

Introduction: Safety behaviors are key elements in reducing the spread of the COVID-19 virus, but have also assumed excessive proportions in form of panic buying groceries. This raises the question whether these behaviors are independent or related to each other. Adherent safety behavior including increased hygiene and physical distancing appears inherently adherent and prosocial, while dysfunctional safety behavior such as panic buying most probably emerges from other motives and contextual variables. Methods: Data from 15,308 participants collected from March 10 to May 4, 2020, during the COVID-19 acute period in Germany, was analyzed to assess whether adherent and dysfunctional safety behavior are predicted by the same or divergent variables. Two multiple regression models are presented including various sociodemographic, trait, attitudinal, and COVID-19-specific variables as predictors. Results: Some variables similarly predict both, adherent and dysfunctional safety behavior. Yet, adherent safety behavior is stronger predicted by COVID-19-related fear than generalized anxiety, while a trend toward a reverse pattern emerged for dysfunctional safety behavior. Adherent safety behavior was also related to higher trust in governmental actions to face COVID-19, subjective level of information, as well as use of public media and TV to remain informed on COVID-19. Higher age was related to dysfunctional, but not adherent safety behavior. Respondents living in rural communities report more adherent safety behavior than urban dwellers. Discussion: Divergent psychological variables underlie adherent and dysfunctional safety behavior. This hints toward a theoretical separation with practical relevance in behavioral engineering and public health campaigning.

Anxiety and safety behavior usage during the COVID-19 pandemic: The prospective role of contamination fear.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has broadly increased anxiety and changed individual behavior. However, there is limited research examining predictors of pandemic-related changes, and the majority of existing research is cross-sectional in nature, which limits causal inference. Given functional links with disease avoidance processes, individual differences in contamination fear may be especially relevant in predicting responses to COVID-19. Accordingly, the present study prospectively examines contamination fear and obsessive-compulsive washing symptoms as predictors of anxiety and safety behaviors in response to COVID-19 in a student sample (N = 108). To examine specificity, anxiety and safety behaviors in response to seasonal influenza are also examined. In the early stages of the pandemic (March 2020), coronavirus-related anxiety was higher than flu-related anxiety (d = 1.38). Obsessive-compulsive washing symptoms also increased from before the pandemic (d = 0.4). Although baseline contamination fear and obsessive-compulsive washing symptoms did not significantly predict coronavirus-related anxiety, contamination fear did significantly predict safety behavior usage in response to both COVID-19 and influenza. The specificity of the prospective association between contamination fear and the use of safety behaviors are discussed in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the broader literature on the role of safety behaviors in anxiety.