The Interplay Between Strictness of Policies and Individuals' Self-Regulatory Efforts: Associations with Handwashing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Aleksandra Luszczynska; Zofia Szczuka; Charles Abraham; Adriana Baban; Sydney Brooks; Sabrina Cipolletta; Ebrima Danso; Stephan U Dombrowski; Yiqun Gan; Tania Gaspar; Margarida Gaspar de Matos; Konstadina Griva; Michelle I Jongenelis; Jan Keller; Nina Knoll; Jinjin Ma; Mohammad Adbdul Awal Miah; Karen Morgan; William Peraud; Bruno Quintard; Vishna Shah; Konstantin Schenkel; Urte Scholz; Ralf Schwarzer; Maria Siwa; Diana Taut; Silvia C M Tomaino; Noa Vilchinsky; Hodaya Wolf

doi:10.1093/abm/kaab102

The Interplay Between Strictness of Policies and Individuals' Self-Regulatory Efforts: Associations with Handwashing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ann Behav Med. 2022 Apr 2;56(4):368-380. doi: 10.1093/abm/kaab102.

Authors

Aleksandra Luszczynska^{1

2}, Zofia Szczuka¹, Charles Abraham³, Adriana Baban⁴, Sydney Brooks⁵, Sabrina Cipolletta⁶, Ebrima Danso⁷, Stephan U Dombrowski⁵, Yiqun Gan⁸, Tania Gaspar⁹, Margarida Gaspar de Matos⁹, Konstadina Griva¹⁰, Michelle I Jongenelis², Jan Keller¹¹, Nina Knoll¹¹, Jinjin Ma⁸, Mohammad Adbdul Awal Miah¹², Karen Morgan¹², William Peraud¹³, Bruno Quintard¹³, Vishna Shah¹⁴, Konstantin Schenkel¹⁵, Urte Scholz^{15

16}, Ralf Schwarzer¹¹, Maria Siwa¹, Diana Taut⁴, Silvia C M Tomaino⁶, Noa Vilchinsky¹⁷, Hodaya Wolf¹⁷

Affiliations

¹ Wroclaw Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Wroclaw, Poland.
² Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Australia.
³ School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
⁵ Faculty of Kinesiology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada.
⁶ Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
⁷ Medical Research Council Unit-The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Serrekunda, Gambia.
⁸ School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.
⁹ Institute of Environmental Health, Medical School, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
¹⁰ Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
¹¹ Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
¹² School of Medicine, Perdana University-Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
¹³ Department of Psychology, INSERM 1219, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France.
¹⁴ Department of Infectious Diseases, Environmental Health Group, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
¹⁵ Department of Psychology, Applied Social and Health Psychology, University of Zurich , Zurich, Switzerland.
¹⁶ University Research Priority Program "Dynamics of Healthy Ageing", University of Zurich , Zurich, Switzerland.
¹⁷ Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.

Abstract

Background: Patterns of protective health behaviors, such as handwashing and sanitizing during the COVID-19 pandemic, may be predicted by macro-level variables, such as regulations specified by public health policies. Health behavior patterns may also be predicted by micro-level variables, such as self-regulatory cognitions specified by health behavior models, including the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA).

Purpose: This study explored whether strictness of containment and health policies was related to handwashing adherence and whether such associations were mediated by HAPA-specified self-regulatory cognitions.

Methods: The study (NCT04367337) was conducted among 1,256 adults from Australia, Canada, China, France, Gambia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, and Switzerland. Self-report data on cross-situational handwashing adherence were collected using an online survey at two time points, 4 weeks apart. Values of the index of strictness of containment and health policies, obtained from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker database, were retrieved twice for each country (1 week prior to individual data collection).

Results: Across countries and time, levels of handwashing adherence and strictness of policies were high. Path analysis indicated that stricter containment and health policies were indirectly related to lower handwashing adherence via lower self-efficacy and self-monitoring. Less strict policies were indirectly related to higher handwashing adherence via higher self-efficacy and self-monitoring.

Conclusions: When policies are less strict, exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus might be higher, triggering more self-regulation and, consequently, more handwashing adherence. Very strict policies may need to be accompanied by enhanced information dissemination or psychosocial interventions to ensure appropriate levels of self-regulation.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cross-country; HAPA; Pandemic; Policies.

Publication types

Clinical Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
COVID-19* / prevention & control
Hand Disinfection
Humans
Pandemics / prevention & control
Policy
SARS-CoV-2

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT04367337