IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0266264.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social-ecological factors related to preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Sou Hyun Jang

Abstract

Most studies on COVID-19 preventive behaviors have focused on single-level factors such as national policy, community social capital, or individuals’ sociodemographic characteristics. Through a social-ecological model, this study attempts to comprehensively examine the multilevel factors associated with COVID-19 preventive practices in South Korea. Accordingly, a web survey involving 1,500 participants was conducted in December 2020. An ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was used to examine the multilevel factors (individual, interpersonal, community, and policy levels) related to COVID-19 preventive measures, which are based on wearing a mask, washing hands, covering the mouth when coughing or sneezing, and social distancing. When factors at each level were investigated, higher scores of COVID-19 fear and correct knowledge at the individual level, COVID-19 information share at the interpersonal level, and better evaluation of the national government policies in regard to COVID-19 at the policy level were positively associated with COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Community-level factors—neighborhood perception and community participation—were negatively significantly related to COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Additionally, older age, being female, and having a graduate-level education were positively related to better preventive behaviors. The findings of the current study suggest that multilevel efforts are needed to promote preventive behaviors. Specifically, more effort to alleviate COVID-19-related fear and disseminate correct knowledge among Korean citizens is needed as the individual-level characteristics explained the preventive behaviors more than the factors at upper levels.

Suggested Citation

  • Sou Hyun Jang, 2022. "Social-ecological factors related to preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-14, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0266264
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266264
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0266264
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0266264&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0266264?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sarah Dryhurst & Claudia R. Schneider & John Kerr & Alexandra L. J. Freeman & Gabriel Recchia & Anne Marthe van der Bles & David Spiegelhalter & Sander van der Linden, 2020. "Risk perceptions of COVID-19 around the world," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(7-8), pages 994-1006, August.
    2. Bartscher, Alina Kristin & Seitz, Sebastian & Siegloch, Sebastian & Slotwinski, Michaela & Wehrhöfer, Nils, 2021. "Social capital and the spread of covid-19: Insights from european countries," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    3. Latkin, Carl A. & Dayton, Lauren & Yi, Grace & Konstantopoulos, Arianna & Boodram, Basmattee, 2021. "Trust in a COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S.: A social-ecological perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    4. Borgonovi, Francesca & Andrieu, Elodie, 2020. "Bowling together by bowling alone: Social capital and COVID-19," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    5. Valerio Capraro & Hélène Barcelo, 2020. "The effect of messaging and gender on intentions to wear a face covering to slow down COVID-19 transmission," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 4(S2), pages 45-55, December.
    6. Jamie Murphy & Frédérique Vallières & Richard P. Bentall & Mark Shevlin & Orla McBride & Todd K. Hartman & Ryan McKay & Kate Bennett & Liam Mason & Jilly Gibson-Miller & Liat Levita & Anton P. Martine, 2021. "Psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.
    7. Elgar, Frank J. & Stefaniak, Anna & Wohl, Michael J.A., 2020. "The trouble with trust: Time-series analysis of social capital, income inequality, and COVID-19 deaths in 84 countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    8. Giuliana Spadaro & Katharina Gangl & Jan-Willem Van Prooijen & Paul A M Van Lange & Cristina O Mosso, 2020. "Enhancing feelings of security: How institutional trust promotes interpersonal trust," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-22, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Szczuka, Zofia & Siwa, Maria & Abraham, Charles & Baban, Adriana & Brooks, Sydney & Cipolletta, Sabrina & Danso, Ebrima & Dombrowski, Stephan U. & Gan, Yiqun & Gaspar, Tania & Gaspar de Matos, Margari, 2023. "Handwashing adherence during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study based on protection motivation theory," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fraser, Timothy & Aldrich, Daniel P. & Page-Tan, Courtney, 2021. "Bowling alone or distancing together? The role of social capital in excess death rates from COVID19," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    2. John F. Helliwell & Max B. Norton & Shun Wang & Lara B. Aknin & Haifang Huang, 2021. "Well-being Analysis Favours a Virus-Elimination Strategy for COVID-19," NBER Working Papers 29092, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Hadi Alizadeh & Ayyoob Sharifi & Safiyeh Damanbagh & Hadi Nazarnia & Mohammad Nazarnia, 2023. "Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the social sphere and lessons for crisis management: a literature review," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 117(3), pages 2139-2164, July.
    4. Laliotis, Ioannis & Minos, Dimitrios, 2022. "Religion, social interactions, and COVID-19 incidence in Western Germany," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    5. Fabrice Etilé & Pierre-Yves Geoffard, 2022. "Associations between anxiety and the willingness to be exposed to COVID-19 risk among French young adults during the first pandemic wave," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-18, January.
    6. Grimalda, Gianluca & Murtin, Fabrice & Pipke, David & Putterman, Louis & Sutter, Matthias, 2023. "The politicized pandemic: Ideological polarization and the behavioral response to COVID-19," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    7. Zhang, Zhiwei & Liu, Gao & Chen, Bin & Huang, Kun, 2022. "Social asset or social liability? How partisanship moderates the relationship between social capital and Covid-19 vaccination rates across United States counties," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    8. Aidha Auliah & Gunawan Prayitno & Ismu Rini Dwi Ari & Rahmawati & Lusyana Eka Wardani & Christia Meidiana, 2022. "The Role of Social Capital Facing Pandemic COVID-19 in Tourism Village to Support Sustainable Agriculture (Empirical Evidence from Two Tourism Villages in Indonesia)," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-20, December.
    9. Panarello, Demetrio & Tassinari, Giorgio, 2022. "One year of COVID-19 in Italy: are containment policies enough to shape the pandemic pattern?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    10. Bartolini, Stefano & Sarracino, Francesco & Slater, Giulia, 2020. "Do epidemics impose a trade-off between freedom and health? Evidence from Europe during Covid-19," MPRA Paper 105035, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Shin KINOSHITA & Masayuki SATO & Takanori IDA, 2022. "Bayesian Probability Revision and Infection Prevention Behavior in Japan : A Quantitative Analysis of the First Wave of COVID-19," Discussion papers e-22-004, Graduate School of Economics , Kyoto University.
    12. Giulia Montresor & Lucia Schiavon, 2024. "Social capital and vaccination compliance: Evidence from Italy," Working Papers 2024: 04, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    13. Acar-Burkay, Sinem & Cristian, Daniela-Carmen, 2022. "Cognitive underpinnings of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    14. Galdikiene, Laura & Jaraite, Jurate & Kajackaite, Agne, 2022. "Trust and vaccination intentions: Evidence from Lithuania during the COVID-19 pandemic," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 17(11), pages 1-1.
    15. Oleksy, Tomasz & Wnuk, Anna & Gambin, Małgorzata & Łyś, Agnieszka, 2021. "Dynamic relationships between different types of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and protective behaviour: A four-wave panel study in Poland," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    16. Keisuke Kokubun, 2020. "Social capital may mediate the relationship between social distance and COVID-19 prevalence," Papers 2007.09939, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2020.
    17. Liu, Ning & Bao, Guoxian & Wu, Shaolong, 2023. "Social implications of Covid-19: Its impact on general trust, political trust, and trust in physicians in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    18. Cristini, Annalisa & Trivin, Pedro, 2022. "Close encounters during a pandemic: Social habits and inter-generational links in the first two waves of COVID-19," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    19. Sasaki, Shusaku & Saito, Tomoya & Ohtake, Fumio, 2022. "Nudges for COVID-19 voluntary vaccination: How to explain peer information?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    20. Zuzanna Kowalik & Piotr Lewandowski, 2021. "The gender gap in aversion to COVID-19 exposure: Evidence from professional tennis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-10, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0266264. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.