[en] Citizens’ trust in government is crucial in managing crises that require coordination as it is linked to cooperative behaviour and sociability. Willingness to adopt appropriate health measures plays a decisive role in the effective containment of COVID-19 and other pandemics. Preventive health measures such as physical distancing, avoiding crowded places, wearing masks, and frequent hand washing reduce the spread of the virus. In this study, we examined how trust in government, risk perception, and knowledge were separately and jointly related to compliance with preventive health measures. We focused on young adults who are less prone to the disease than older demographics, who therefore have fewer incentives to protect themselves, and are accordingly pertinent for the study of public health and understandings of risk. Using recent data from a survey completed by 2,455 young people in Luxembourg, we employed structural equation modelling to assess our hypotheses. We found that trust in government, risk perceptions, and COVID-19 knowledge are important predictors of young people’s adherence to health measures and prosocial protection. Additionally, these factors are interrelated in several complex and non-linear ways. Our findings provide insights into young people’s specific health behaviours, highlighting the roles of risk perception and trust in government in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
Disciplines :
Sociology & social sciences
Author, co-author :
Bulut, Hamid ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Social Sciences (DSOC)
Samuel, Robin ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Social Sciences (DSOC)
External co-authors :
no
Language :
English
Title :
The role of trust in government and risk perception in adherence to COVID-19 prevention measures: survey findings among young people in Luxembourg
Aerts, C., Revilla, M., Duval, L., Paaijmans, K., Chandrabose, J., Cox, H., Sicuri, E., & Lenhart, A. (2020). Understanding the role of disease knowledge and risk perception in shaping preventive behavior for selected vector-borne diseases in Guyana. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 14 (4), e0008149. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008149
Bandura, A. (1998). Health promotion from the perspective of social cognitive theory. Psychology & Health, 13 (4), 623–649. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870449808407422
Bielby, W. T., & Hauser, R. M. (1977). Structural equation models. Annual Review of Sociology, 3 (1), 137–161. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.03.080177.001033
Bi, Q., Wu, Y., Mei, S., Ye, C., Zou, X., Zhang, Z., Liu, X., Wei, L., Truelove, S. A., Zhang, T., Gao, W., Cheng, C., Tang, X., Wu, X., Wu, Y.,[YU], Sun, B., Huang, S., Sun, Y., & Zhang, J. et al. (2020). Epidemiology and transmission of COVID-19 in 391 cases and 1286 of their close contacts in Shenzhen, China: A retrospective cohort study. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 20 (8), 911–919. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30287-5
Blair, R. A., Morse, B. S., & Tsai, L. L. (2017). Public health and public trust: Survey evidence from the Ebola virus disease epidemic in Liberia. Social Science & Medicine, 172, 89–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.11.016
Bouckaert, G., & van de Walle, S. (2003). Comparing measures of citizen trust and user satisfaction as indicators of ‘good governance’: Difficulties in linking trust and satisfaction indicators. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 69 (3), 329–343. https://doi.org/10.1177/00208523030693003
Brown, P. (2020). Studying COVID-19 in light of critical approaches to risk and uncertainty: Research pathways, conceptual tools, and some magic from Mary Douglas. Health, Risk & Society, 22 (1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698575.2020.1745508
Brown, T. A. (2015). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research (2nd ed.). The Guilford Press.
Bruine de Bruin, W., & Isaacowitz, D. (2021). Age differences in COVID-19 risk perceptions and mental health: Evidence from a National U.S. Survey conducted in March 2020. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 76 (2), e24–e29. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaa074
Christensen, T., & Lægreid, P. (2005). Trust in government: The relative importance of service satisfaction, political factors, and demography. Public Performance & Management Review, 28 (4), 487–511. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3381308
Cologna, V., & Siegrist, M. (2020). The role of trust for climate change mitigation and adaptation behaviour: A meta-analysis. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 69, 101428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101428
Devine, D., Gaskell, J., Jennings, W., & Stoker, G. (2020). Trust and the Coronavirus pandemic: What are the consequences of and for trust? An early review of the literature. Political Studies Review, 19 (2), 274–285. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929920948684
DiClemente, R. J. (1989). Prevention of human immunodeficiency virus infection among adolescents: The interplay of health education and public policy in the development and implementation of school-based AIDS education programs. AIDS Education and Prevention, 1 (1), 70–78. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1990-10887-001
Douglas, M., & Wildavsky, A. (1983). Risk and culture: An essay on the selection of technological and environmental dangers (1. paperback printing, 1983). University of California Press.
Dryhurst, S., Schneider, C. R., Kerr, J., Freeman, A. L. J., Recchia, G., van der Bles, A. M., Spiegelhalter, D., & van der Linden, S. (2020). Risk perceptions of COVID-19 around the world. Journal of Risk Research, 23 (7–8), 994–1006. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1758193
Dyregrov, A., Fjærestad, A., Gjestad, R., & Thimm, J. (2021). Young people’s risk perception and experience in connection with COVID-19. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 26 (7), 597–610. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2020.1853974
Ejaz, W., Ittefaq, M., Seo, H., & Naz, F. (2021). Factors associated with the belief in COVID-19 related conspiracy theories in Pakistan. Health, Risk & Society, 23 (3–4), 162–178. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698575.2021.1929865
Ferrer, R. A., Klein, W. M. P., Avishai, A., Jones, K., Villegas, M., Sheeran, P., & Ozakinci, G. (2018). When does risk perception predict protection motivation for health threats? A person-by-situation analysis. PloS One, 13 (3), e0191994. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191994
Fisher, J. D., & Fisher, W. A. (1992). Changing AIDS-risk behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 111 (3), 455–474. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.111.3.455
Fisher, J., van Heerde, J., & Tucker, A. (2010). Does one trust judgement fit all? Linking theory and empirics. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 12 (2), 161–188. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-856X.2009.00401.x
Fjaeran, L., & Aven, T. (2021). Creating conditions for critical trust - How an uncertainty-based risk perspective relates to dimensions and types of trust. Safety Science, 133, 105008. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.105008
Fong, E., & Chang, L. (2011). Community under stress: Trust, reciprocity, and community collective efficacy during SARS outbreak. Journal of Community Health, 36 (5), 797–810. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-011-9378-2
Fukuyama, F. (1996). Trust: The social virtues and the creation of prosperity (1. Free Press paperback ed.). A Free Press paperbacks book. Free Press.
Garfin, D. R., Fischhoff, B., Holman, E. A., & Silver, R. C. (2021). Risk perceptions and health behaviors as COVID-19 emerged in the United States: Results from a probability-based nationally representative sample. Journal of Experimental Psychology, Applied, 27 (4), 584–598. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000374
Gianino, M. M., Nurchis, M. C., Politano, G., Rousset, S., & Damiani, G. (2021). Evaluation of the strategies to control COVID-19 pandemic in four European countries. Frontiers in Public Health, 9, 700811. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.700811
Gilson, L. (2003). Trust and the development of health care as a social institution. Social Science & Medicine, 56 (7), 1453–1468. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(02)00142-9
Han, Q., Zheng, B., Cristea, M., Agostini, M., Bélanger, J. J., Gützkow, B., Kreienkamp, J., & Leander, N. P. (2021). Trust in government regarding COVID-19 and its associations with preventive health behaviour and prosocial behaviour during the pandemic: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study. Psychological Medicine, 53 (1), 149–159. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291721001306
Haug, N., Geyrhofer, L., Londei, A., Dervic, E., Desvars-Larrive, A., Loreto, V., Pinior, B., Thurner, S., & Klimek, P. (2020). Ranking the effectiveness of worldwide COVID-19 government interventions. Nature Human Behaviour, 4 (12), 1303–1312. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-01009-0
Heimlich, J. E., & Ardoin, N. M. (2008). Understanding behavior to understand behavior change: A literature review. Environmental Education Research, 14 (3), 215–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620802148881
Hertwig, R., Liebig, S., Lindenberger, U., & Wagner, G. G. (2020). Wie gefährlich ist COVID-19? Die subjektive Risikoeinschätzung einer lebensbedrohlichen COVID-19-Erkrankung im Frühjahr und Frühsommer 2020 in Deutschland. SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research (No. 1095). http://hdl.handle.net/10419/224086
Hills, S., & Eraso, Y. (2021). Factors associated with non-adherence to social distancing rules during the COVID-19 pandemic: A logistic regression analysis. BMC Public Health, 21 (1), 352. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10379-7
Hooghe, M., Marien, S., & Oser, J. (2017). Great expectations: The effect of democratic ideals on political trust in European democracies. Contemporary Politics, 23 (2), 214–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2016.1210875
Iacobucci, D. (2009). Everything you always wanted to know about SEM (structural equations modeling) but were afraid to ask. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 19 (4), 673–680. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2009.09.002
Johnson, R. J., McCaul, K. D., & Klein, W. M. P. (2002). Risk involvement and risk perception among adolescents and young adults. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 25 (1), 67–82. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1013541802282
Kaiser, F. G., Roczen, N., & Bogner, F. X. (2008). Competence formation in environmental education: Advancing ecology-specific rather than general abilities. Umweltpsychologie, 12 (2), 56–70. https://doi.org/10.5167/UZH-9249
Kim, J. S., & Choi, J. S. (2016). Middle East respiratory syndrome-related knowledge, preventive behaviours and risk perception among nursing students during outbreak. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 25 (17–18), 2542–2549. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.13295
Larson, H. J., Clarke, R. M., Jarrett, C., Eckersberger, E., Levine, Z., Schulz, W. S., & Paterson, P. (2018). Measuring trust in vaccination: A systematic review. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 14 (7), 1599–1609. https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2018.1459252
Leavitt, J. W. (2003). Public resistance or cooperation? A tale of smallpox in two cities. Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science, 1 (3), 185–192. https://doi.org/10.1089/153871303769201833
Leiserowitz, A. (2006). Climate change risk perception and policy preferences: The role of affect, imagery, and values. Climatic Change, 77 (1–2), 45–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-006-9059-9
Leppin, A., & Aro, A. R. (2009). Risk perceptions related to SARS and avian influenza: Theoretical foundations of Current empirical Research. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 16 (1), 7–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-008-9002-8
Lim, V. W., Lim, R. L., Tan, Y. R., Soh, A. S., Tan, M. X., Othman, N. B., Borame Dickens, S., Thein, T. ‑., Lwin, M. O., Ong, R. T. ‑., Leo, Y. ‑., Lee, V. J., & Chen, M. I. (2021). Government trust, perceptions of COVID-19 and behaviour change: Cohort surveys, Singapore. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 99 (2), 92–101. https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.20.269142
Lo Presti, S., Mattavelli, G., Canessa, N., Gianelli, C., & Provenzi, L. (2022). Risk perception and behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic: Predicting variables of compliance with lockdown measures. PloS One, 17 (1), e0262319. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262319
Luhmann, N. (1979). Trust and Power: Two works. John Wiley & Sons.
Mohseni, M., & Lindstrom, M. (2007). Social capital, trust in the health-care system and self-rated health: The role of access to health care in a population-based study. Social Science & Medicine, 64 (7), 1373–1383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.11.023
OECD. (2021). Government at a Glance 2021. https://doi.org/10.1787/1c258f55-en
OECD. (2022). Evaluation of Luxembourg’s COVID-19 Response. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/content/publication/2c78c89f-en10.1787/2c78c89f-en
O’Malley, P., Rainford, J., & Thompson, A. (2009). Transparency during public health emergencies: From rhetoric to reality. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 87 (8), 614–618. https://doi.org/10.2471/blt.08.056689
O’Malley, A. S., Sheppard, V. B., Schwartz, M., & Mandelblatt, J. (2004). The role of trust in use of preventive services among low-income African-American women. Preventive Medicine, 38 (6), 777–785. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2004.01.018
Pan, Y., Xin, M., Zhang, C., Dong, W., Fang, Y., Wu, W., Li, M., Pang, J., Zheng, Z., Wang, Z., Yuan, J., & He, Y. (2020). Associations of mental health and personal preventive measure compliance with exposure to COVID-19 information during work resumption following the COVID-19 outbreak in China: Cross-sectional survey study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22 (10), e22596. https://doi.org/10.2196/22596
Pesigan, I. J. A., & Cheung, S. F. (2020). Sem-based methods to form confidence intervals for indirect effect: Still applicable given nonnormality, under certain conditions. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 571928. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.571928
Plohl, N., & Musil, B. (2021). Modeling compliance with COVID-19 prevention guidelines: The critical role of trust in science. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 26 (1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2020.1772988
Poortinga, W., & Pidgeon, N. F. (2003). Exploring the dimensionality of trust in risk regulation. Risk Analysis: An Official Publication of the Society for Risk Analysis, 23 (5), 961–972. https://doi.org/10.1111/1539-6924.00373
Prati, G., Tzankova, I., Barbieri, I., Guarino, A., Compare, C., Albanesi, C., & Cicognani, E. (2021). People’s understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic: Social representations of SARS-CoV-2 virus in Italy. Health, Risk & Society, 23 (7–8), 304–320. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698575.2021.1972089
Règlement grand-ducal du 17 avril 2020 portant introduction d’une série de mesures en matière de sécurité et santé au travail dans le cadre de la lutte contre le COVID-19. (2020). http://data.legilux.public.lu/eli/etat/leg/rgd/2020/04/17/a304/jo
Reniers, R. L. E. P., Murphy, L., Lin, A., Bartolomé, S. P., Wood, S. J., & Ginsberg, S. D. (2016). Risk perception and risk-taking behaviour during adolescence: The influence of personality and Gender. PloS One, 11 (4), e0153842. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153842
Richardson, L. J., & Bélanger, J. J. (2020). Covid-19 knowledge test: An assessment Tool for health educators during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Public Health, 8, 580204. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.580204
Rodríguez, H., Donner, W., & Trainor, J. E., (Eds). (2018). Springer eBook collection social Sciences. In Handbook of disaster research. 2nd. Springer: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63254-4.
Rosi, A., van Vugt, F. T., Lecce, S., Ceccato, I., Vallarino, M., Rapisarda, F., Vecchi, T., & Cavallini, E. (2021). Risk perception in a Real-World situation (COVID-19): How it changes from 18 to 87 years old. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 646558. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.646558
Rubin, G. J., Amlôt, R., Page, L., & Wessely, S. (2009). Public perceptions, anxiety, and behaviour change in relation to the swine flu outbreak: Cross sectional telephone survey. BMJ, 339 (jul02 3), b2651. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.b2651
Savadori, L., & Lauriola, M. (2022). Risk perceptions and COVID-19 protective behaviors: A two-wave longitudinal study of epidemic and post-epidemic periods. Social Science & Medicine, 301, 114949. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114949
Schneider, C. R., Dryhurst, S., Kerr, J., Freeman, A. L. J., Recchia, G., Spiegelhalter, D., & van der Linden, S. (2021). COVID-19 risk perception: A longitudinal analysis of its predictors and associations with health protective behaviours in the United Kingdom. Journal of Risk Research, 24 (3–4), 294–313. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2021.1890637
Schomaker, L., Sozio, M. E., Residori, C., & Samuel, R. (2021). Economic, and health consequences of infection prevention and control measures among young people in Luxembourg–technical report 2020. University of Luxembourg.
Shanka, M. S., & Menebo, M. M. (2022). When and how trust in government leads to compliance with COVID-19 precautionary measures. Journal of Business Research, 139, 1275–1283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.10.036
Shekerdemian, L. S., Mahmood, N. R., Wolfe, K. K., Riggs, B. J., Ross, C. E., McKiernan, C. A., Heidemann, S. M., Kleinman, L. C., Sen, A. I., Hall, M. W., Priestley, M. A., McGuire, J. K., Boukas, K., Sharron, M. P., & Burns, J. P. (2020). Characteristics and outcomes of Children with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection admitted to US and Canadian pediatric intensive care units. JAMA Pediatrics, 174 (9), 868–873. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.1948
Siegrist, M. (2021). Trust and risk perception: A critical review of the literature. Risk Analysis: An Official Publication of the Society for Risk Analysis, 41 (3), 480–490. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13325
Siegrist, M., Gutscher, H., & Earle, T. C. (2005). Perception of risk: The influence of general trust, and general confidence. Journal of Risk Research, 8 (2), 145–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/1366987032000105315
Siegrist, M., & Zingg, A. (2014). The role of public trust during pandemics. European Psychologist, 19 (1), 23–32. https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000169
Simmel, G. (1990). The philosophy of money (2. enl. ed.). German original 1900. Routledge.
Slovic, P. (1992). Perception of risk: Reflections on the psychometric paradigm. In S. Krimsky & D. Golding (Eds.), Social theories of risk (pp. 117–152). Praeger.
Smith, E. K., & Mayer, A. (2018). A social trap for the climate? Collective action, trust and climate change risk perception in 35 countries. Global Environmental Change, 49, 140–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.02.014
Tenkorang, E. Y. (2018). Effect of knowledge and perceptions of risks on Ebola-preventive behaviours in Ghana. International Health, 10 (3), 202–210. https://doi.org/10.1093/inthealth/ihy009
Tenkorang, E. Y., & Maticka-Tyndale, E. (2014). Assessing young people’s perceptions of HIV risks in Nyanza, Kenya: Are school and community level factors relevant? Social Science & Medicine, 116, 93–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.06.041
van Bavel, J. J., Baicker, K., Boggio, P. S., Capraro, V., Cichocka, A., Cikara, M., Crockett, M. J., Crum, A. J., Douglas, K. M., Druckman, J. N., Drury, J., Dube, O., Ellemers, N., Finkel, E. J., Fowler, J. H., Gelfand, M., Han, S., Haslam, S. A., Jetten, J., Willer, R. (2020). Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response. Nature Human Behaviour, 4 (5), 460–471. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0884-z
van der Linden, S. (2015). The social-psychological determinants of climate change risk perceptions: Towards a comprehensive model. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 41, 112–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2014.11.012
Vinck, P., Pham, P. N., Bindu, K. K., Bedford, J., & Nilles, E. J. (2019). Institutional trust and misinformation in the response to the 2018–19 Ebola outbreak in North Kivu, DR Congo: A population-based survey. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 19 (5), 529–536. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30063-5
Vukovich, L., Vysotskaya, V., & Nienaber, B. (2020). Coronavirus pandemic in the EU–Fundamental Rights Implications in Luxembourg -July2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10993/44111
Wang, D., & Mao, Z. (2021). From risks to catastrophes: How Chinese newspapers framed the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in its early stage. Health, Risk & Society, 23 (3–4), 93–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698575.2021.1901859
Ward, H., & Atchison, C., & collaboration patient experience Research centre (PERC) of Imperial College London. (2020). Public Response to UK Government Recommendations on COVID-19: Population Survey, 17-18 March 2020. Imperial College London, School of Public Health. http://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/mrc-gida/Imperial-College-COVID19-UK-Survey-Tool-Public-Perceptions-and-Behaviours.docx
Wong, C. M. L., & Jensen, O. (2020). The paradox of trust: Perceived risk and public compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. Journal of Risk Research, 23 (7–8), 1021–1030. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1756386
Wynne, B. (1980). Technology, risk and participation: On the social treatment of uncertainty. InJ. Conrad (Eds.), Society, technology and risk assessment (pp. 167–202). Academic Press.
Yang, X. Y., Gong, R. N., Sassine, S., Morsa, M., Tchogna, A. S., Drouin, O., Chadi, N., & Jantchou, P. (2020). Risk perception of COVID-19 infection and adherence to preventive measures among adolescents and young adults. Children, 7 (12), 311. https://doi.org/10.3390/children7120311
Ye, M., & Lyu, Z. (2020). Trust, risk perception, and COVID-19 infections: Evidence from multilevel analyses of combined original dataset in China. Social Science & Medicine, 265, 113517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113517
Zimmermann, P., & Curtis, N. (2020). Coronavirus infections in Children including COVID-19: An overview of the epidemiology, clinical features, diagnosis, treatment and prevention options in Children. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 39 (5), 355–368. https://doi.org/10.1097/INF.0000000000002660
