Racial/Ethnic Differences in Prosocial Beliefs and Prevention Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
J Racial Ethn Health Disparities
; 9(5): 1807-1817, 2022 10.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1379009
ABSTRACT
Controlling the COVID-19 pandemic has required communities to engage in prosocial action, including behaviors that may inconvenience individuals, but protect the collective (e.g., mask wearing, social distancing). The purpose of this study was to understand to what extent COVID-19 prosocial beliefs and behavior differ by race/ethnicity and why this might be the case. A US nationally representative sample of 410 adults completed a survey about COVID-19 beliefs and prevention behaviors between June 12 and 18, 2020. Compared to White respondents, Black respondents perceived the risk of COVID-19 to be greater to the US population; and both Black and Latinx respondents thought it was more important to protect a variety of non-close others (e.g., people in their city or state). Black and Latinx respondents engaged in several prevention behaviors, including social distancing, to a greater extent than White respondents. There were indirect effects of Black vs. White race on engaging in protective behaviors through greater perceived risk to others and beliefs in the importance of protecting distal others. Results indicate that targeted messages promoting prevention, including vaccination with pro-social messages, may resonate with communities of color. They also suggest that lower levels of prosocial beliefs among White people have likely hindered the US response to the epidemic.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Adult
/
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Racial Ethn Health Disparities
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S40615-021-01117-1
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