Young people's media use and adherence to preventive measures in the "infodemic": Is it masked by political ideology?
Soc Sci Med
; 317: 115596, 2023 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2159835
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Navigating in the COVID-19 "infodemic" and adhering to preventive measures is especially challenging for young people. The use of information sources and political ideology are empirically important factors for adherence behavior. How these two are interconnected and if political ideology on its own contributes to adherence is not yet well established in young people.OBJECTIVE:
This study investigates what role political ideology and political extremism, use of information sources, trust and risk perception play for adhering to preventive measures in young people.METHODS:
Cross-sectional online survey in a representative random sample of young people aged 15-34 in two German-speaking and one Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland. The hypotheses were tested with logistic regression and multivariate regression analysis.RESULTS:
The odds for using the following information sources decreases for young people positioning themselves towards the right pole of the ideology scale health-based sources 0.90 (CI 0.84-0.97), news sources 0.93 (CI 0.87-0.997) and other websites 0.83 (CI 0.75-0.92). In contrast, the odds of using broadcasting sources increases for young people positioning themselves towards the right pole of the ideology scale (OR 1.08, CI 1.01-1.15). The odds of using social media decreases with higher political extremism (OR 0.88, CI 0.78-0.99). Political extremism was related with lower adherence to preventive measures in young people with low trust in the government, scientists, and journalists.CONCLUSION:
Young peoples' use of information sources is associated with their political ideology and political extremism needs to be taken in account in conjunction with low trust.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Soc Sci Med
Year:
2023
Document Type:
Article
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