Generational differences in the relationship between media exposure and health behaviors during COVID-19 pandemic

Ruimin He; Jia He; Huan Zhang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1039122

Generational differences in the relationship between media exposure and health behaviors during COVID-19 pandemic

Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 16:14:1039122. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1039122. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ruimin He¹, Jia He², Huan Zhang³

Affiliations

¹ School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
² USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
³ School of Journalism and Communication, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.

Abstract

Based on a questionnaire survey (N = 857), this study analyzed generational differences in the public health behaviors of COVID-19 and provided an explanation for generational differences from the perspective of media exposure. There are significant differences in media exposure and health behaviors between the Mesozoic generation (35-55) and the young generation (18-34) during the lull. The Mesozoic generation paid greater attention to information on pandemics. Consequently, their health behaviors surpass that of the young generation. On the basis of social cognitive theory and protection motivation theory, this study develops a mediating model of media exposure on health behaviors, demonstrating that media exposure can influence health behaviors through the mediating effects of perceived severity, self-efficacy, and response efficacy, but not via perceived susceptibility. Moreover, a moderated mediation study found that generation moderates the indirect effect of media exposure on health behaviors via perceived susceptibility. Media exposure influences Mesozoic healthy behaviors positively by decreasing their perceived susceptibility. The implication of this study is that the development of health communication theory must account for generational differences and disease-specific characteristics.

Keywords: generational differences; health behaviors; media exposure; protection motivation theory; social cognitive theory.