Time perspective and motivation to protective behaviours against Covid-19 in Italian young people

Introduction. Health Psychology highlights the complexity of factors that influences theindividual decision to adopt one, or more, protective behaviours for avoiding diseases and adverse health outcomes. One of the most relevant theory is the Protection Motivation Theory (Rogers, 1975), which has been adopted for identifying the psychological factors involved in many protection behaviours. Another relevant construct for healthy behaviours is represented by the Time Perspective (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999). This study analysed the relationships between the Protection Motivation Theory applied on Covid-19 and Time Perspective in Italian young people. Method. A group of 130 young people (m. age 26.4; 40 males and 90 females)participated in the study, filling in the Swedish Zimbardo Time PerspectiveInventory and the Motivation to Protect against Covid-19 Questionnaire.

Threesingle items furthermore explored the prevailingly sources of information forCovid-19 (social media such as Facebook; traditional media such as TV;specialistic magazines such as Le Scienze) used and a single item tested thelevel of mistrust in Political Institutions and mass-media and its association withprotection motivation, beliefs and perceived vulnerability to Covid-19-Results. Perceived vulnerability to Covid-19 and use of protections andperceived efficacy of protections, show positive correlations with FuturePositive; beliefs on Covid-19 vaccine resulted as negatively correlated withPresent Fatalistic; a positive correlation between mistrust in political institutions and Present Fatalistic has been found.

Social media (such as Facebook,Instagram) and traditional mass media (such as TV) as preferred systems ofinformation are both positively correlated with beliefs on Covid-19 vaccine,perceived vulnerability and use of protections, highlighting the role of newforms of circulation of information, but also the relevance of traditional ones foryoung people. Perceived vulnerability to Covid-19, perceived efficacy ofprotections give a positive contribution to the intention to get vaccinated;mistrust in political institutions and media on the contrary reduces the intentionto take the vaccine.Conclusions. Results are discussed in relations to preventive interventionson the young population for the improvement of self-awareness of persistence ofthis virus and consequently the necessity of adopting self-protection, withspecial attention to vaccination. The relevance of time perspective dimensionsfor protection suggests to include it in the programs devoted to reduce the riskof contagion [Pulisher's text]