Podium Presentation - 10 minutes International Positive Psychology Association 7th IPPA World Congress 2021

Collective efficacy and accurate threat perception facilitate pandemic preparedness and prevention efforts among international students during COVID-19 (#72)

Marcela C Weber 1 , Jeffrey M Pavlacic 1 , Victoria Torres 1 , Stefan E Schulenberg 1 , Erin Buchanan 2
  1. The University of Mississippi, University, MISSISSIPPI (MS), United States
  2. Cognitive Analytics, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology , Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States

 

Background

 Effective preparedness and prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic is vital for survivors’ resilience1,2. Higher self-efficacy and perceived likelihood of threat are linked to disaster preparedness/prevention but perceived severity effects are not well established3. Research is needed on the role of collective efficacy4, particularly during COVID-19 when one individual’s behavior directly impacts others’ safety. The chronic nature of pandemics warrants a longitudinal design to examine threat perception, efficacy, and preparedness/prevention. International students in the U.S. are less prepared for other disasters5, so they warrant focus in COVID-19 research.

Hypotheses/Research Questions

 Greater between- and within-person threat perception, self-efficacy, and collective efficacy will increase COVID-19 preparedness/prevention behaviors.

Sample Characteristics and Sample Size

 International students (N = 52) at a U.S. university were surveyed weekly for > 700 data points total (data collection ongoing).

Design

 The design was time series with up to 14 data points per person 2-11 days apart. Within- and between-person effects were examined using multilevel modeling.

Results

 Data after 8 timepoints (reported here) showed greater within-person perceived severity of COVID-19 predicted greater preparedness/prevention efforts. Greater within-person collective efficacy predicted greater preparedness/prevention efforts. Within-person effects of self-efficacy were not significant. Between-person effects were not significant for any predictor. With half the data collected, 15% of the fixed variance was accounted for.

Scientific Contribution

 Collective efficacy combined with accurate threat perception is vital for greater COVID-19 preparedness and prevention efforts. These within-person effects suggest that changing a person’s threat perception and sense of self-efficacy is quite possible and effective. Our preliminary findings that collective efficacy outweighs self-efficacy fit with the prosocial aspect of COVID-19 prevention behaviors. Further, considering the added stressors the international students in our study faced, implications include that it is vital to provide stronger community support and to enhance their sense of community during COVID-19.


 

  1. Gil-Rivas, V., & Kilmer, R. P. (2016). Building community capacity and fostering disaster resilience. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 72, 1318– 1332. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22281
  2. Weber, M. C., Pavlacic, J. M., Gawlik, E. A., Schulenberg, S. E., & Buchanan, E. M. (in press, online first 2019). Modeling resilience, meaning in life, posttraumatic growth, and disaster preparedness with two samples of tornado survivors. Traumatology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/trm0000210
  3. Weber, M. C., Schulenberg, S. E., & Lair, E. C. (2018). University employees' preparedness for natural hazards and incidents of mass violence: An application of the extended parallel process model. International journal of disaster risk reduction, 31, 1082-1091.
  4. Ostadtaghizadeh, A., Ardalan, A., Paton, D., Jabbari, H., & Khankeh, H. R. (2015). Community disaster resilience: A systematic review on assessment models and tools. PLoS currents, 7, ecurrents.dis.f224ef8efbdfcf1d508dd0de4d8210ed. https://doi.org/10.1371/currents.dis.f224ef8efbdfcf1d508dd0de4d8210ed
  5. Tkachuck, M. A., Schulenberg, S. E., & Lair, E. C. (2018). Natural disaster preparedness in college students: Implications for institutions of higher learning. Journal of American College Health, 66(4), 269-279. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2018.1431897
  • Keywords: Diversity and Inclusion, Health and Medicine, Resilience and Posttraumatic Growth, Strengths