Volume 30, Issue 3, 2021
Health-regulations to control COVID-19 in Spain: Compliance, agreement and related personal variables
Abstract
Since the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic in March 2020, it has had a tremendous effect worldwide. Various measures have been put in place to contain the spread of the virus: hand washing, social distancing and the use of face masks. The aim of this study was to assess levels of compliance and agreement with these three measures in the social context, and to analyze other personal variables (age, gender, self-control, self-efficacy and obedience to rules) that may be related to both. The measurement instruments were administered to 722 people aged between 18 and 65 years. The results revealed high levels of compliance and agreement, although scores varied in accordance with the specific measure in question. Both compliance and agreement were lower among younger people, although no differences were observed in terms of gender. Differences were found in personal variables in accordance with the four possible patterns based on different combinations of high and low compliance and agreement, with scores, being higher among young people. These results highlight the need to take personal variables into account in intervention/prevention programs. They also suggest that communication campaigns should focus on health measures in accordance with the idiosyncrasies of each age group.
Keywords
COVID-19, compliance, agreement, self-control, self-efficacy, obedience to rules, age, gender