Objective
In situations of acute stress, individuals may engage in prosocial behaviors or alternatively, individuals may engage in risk taking self-oriented behaviors. The COVID-19 pandemic created large stress-promoting conditions that impacted individuals’ decisions to adhere to COVID-19 preventative behaviors. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between anxiety during the pandemic and adherence behaviors to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and the moderating influence prosocial behaviors.
Method
54 undergraduate students completed online questionnaires during the second wave of the pandemic: prosocial behaviors, anxiety, and COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Moderation analyses were conducted using Process in SPSS.
Results
Results demonstrated a statistically significant interaction of public prosocial behavior with state anxiety (β = -.17, p=.01) predicting engagement in COVID-19 preventative behaviors. At low levels of anxiety, low levels of prosocial public behaviors were associated with higher engagement in COVID-19 preventative behaviors. In contrast, high levels of public prosocial behavior were associated with lower engagement in COVID-19 preventative behaviors at low levels of anxiety.
Conclusion
Results provide information that can aid at in the creation of anxiety reducing interventions that could increase adherence to COVID-19 preventative behaviors.