IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0258121.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Role of Tailored Public Health Messaging to Young Adults during COVID-19: “There’s a lot of ambiguity around what it means to be safe”

Author

Listed:
  • Tina Cheng
  • Braxtyn Horbay
  • Rochelle Nocos
  • Lesley Lutes
  • Scott A Lear

Abstract

The COVID-19 global incidence rate among young adults (age 19–40) drastically increased since summer 2020, and young adults were often portrayed by popular media as the "main spreader" of the pandemic. However, young adults faced unique challenges during the pandemic due to working in high-risk, low-paying essential service occupations, as well as having higher levels of financial insecurity and mental burden. This qualitative study aims to examine the attitudes and perceptions of health orders of young adults to better inform public health messaging to reach this demographic and increase compliance to public health orders. A total of 50 young adults residing in British Columbia, Canada, were recruited to participate in focus group in groups of four to six. Focus group discussions were conducted via teleconferencing. Thematic analysis revealed four major themes: 1) risks of contracting the disease, 2) the perceived impact of COVID-19, 3) responsibility of institutions, 4) and effective public health messaging. Contrary to existing literature, our findings suggest young adults feel highly responsible for protecting themselves and others. They face a higher risk of depression and anxiety compared to other age groups, especially when they take on multiple social roles such as caregivers and parents. Our findings suggest young adults face confusion due to inconsistent messaging and are not reached due to the ineffectiveness of existing strategies. We recommend using evidence-based strategies proven to promote behaviour change to address the barriers identified by young adults through tailoring public health messages, specifically by using positive messaging, messaging that considers the context of the intended audiences, and utilizing digital platforms to facilitate two-way communication.

Suggested Citation

  • Tina Cheng & Braxtyn Horbay & Rochelle Nocos & Lesley Lutes & Scott A Lear, 2021. "The Role of Tailored Public Health Messaging to Young Adults during COVID-19: “There’s a lot of ambiguity around what it means to be safe”," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(10), pages 1-13, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0258121
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258121
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0258121
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0258121&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0258121?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. Francine D. Blau & Josefine Koebe & Pamela A. Meyerhofer, 2021. "Who are the essential and frontline workers?," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 56(3), pages 168-178, July.
    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. Sanvir Sandhu & Emma Wilson & Kaushik Chattopadhyay, 2023. "Perceptions and Experiences of Undergraduate Students Regarding Social Media as a Tool for Government COVID-19-Related Messages: A Qualitative Study in Nottingham, UK," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(20), pages 1-14, October.
    2. Mary Chidiac & Christopher Ross & Hannah R. Marston & Shannon Freeman, 2022. "Age and Gender Perspectives on Social Media and Technology Practices during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-14, October.

    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. Matthias Dütsch, 2022. "COVID-19 and the labour market: What are the working conditions in critical jobs?," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 56(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Lee, Haena & Andrasfay, Theresa & Riley, Alicia & Wu, Qiao & Crimmins, Eileen, 2022. "Do social determinants of health explain racial/ethnic disparities in COVID-19 infection?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    3. Yinon Bar-On & Tatiana Baron & Ofer Cornfeld & Eran Yashiv, 2023. "When to Lock, Not Whom: Managing Epidemics Using Time-Based Restrictions," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 292-321, December.
    4. Katherine Leggat-Barr & Fumiya Uchikoshi & Noreen Goldman, 2021. "COVID-19 risk factors and mortality among Native Americans," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(39), pages 1185-1218.
    5. Richard Beem & Christopher Goetz & Martha Stinson & Sean Wang, 2022. "Business Dynamics Statistics for Single-Unit Firms," Working Papers 22-57, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    6. Yinon Bar-On & Tatiana Baron & Ofer Cornfeld & Eran Yashiv, 2023. "When to Lock, Not Whom: Managing Epidemics Using Time-Based Restrictions," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 292-321, December.
    7. Jung, Juergen & Manley, James & Shrestha, Vinish, 2021. "Coronavirus infections and deaths by poverty status: The effects of social distancing," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 311-330.
    8. Strenio, Jacqueline & van der Meulen Rodgers, Yana, 2023. "Integrating Gender into a Labor Economics Class," IZA Discussion Papers 15886, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Marcella Alsan & Amitabh Chandra & Kosali Simon, 2021. "The Great Unequalizer: Initial Health Effects of COVID-19 in the United States," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(3), pages 25-46, Summer.
    10. Antonio ALOISI & Valerio DE STEFANO, 2022. "Essential jobs, remote work and digital surveillance: Addressing the COVID‐19 pandemic panopticon," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 161(2), pages 289-314, June.
    11. Thomas Amosse & Mikael Beatriz & Christine Erhel & Malik Koubi & Amélie Mauroux, 2021. "Les métiers "de deuxième ligne" de la crise du Covid-19 : quelles conditions de travail et d'emploi dans le secteur privé ?," Working Papers halshs-03228778, HAL.
    12. Andrea Vinueza-Cabezas & Gabriel Osejo-Taco & Alejandro Unda-López & Clara Paz & Paula Hidalgo-Andrade, 2022. "A Comparison of Working Conditions and Workers’ Perceptions among On-Site, Telework, and Hybrid Workers in Ecuador during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-13, November.
    13. Yinon Bar-On & Tatiana Baron & Ofer Cornfeld & Eran Yashiv, 2023. "When to Lock, Not Whom: Managing Epidemics Using Time-Based Restrictions," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 292-321, December.
    14. Stefania Albanesi & Jiyeon Kim, 2021. "The Gendered Impact of the COVID-19 Recession on the US Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 28505, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Lauren A. Clay & Stephanie Rogus, 2021. "Impact of Employment, Essential Work, and Risk Factors on Food Access during the COVID-19 Pandemic in New York State," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-12, February.
    16. Pierre‐Loup Beauregard & Marie Connolly & Catherine Haeck & Tímea Laura Molnár, 2022. "Primary school reopenings and parental work," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(S1), pages 248-281, February.
    17. Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Malesky, Edmund & Nguyen, Cuong Viet, 2020. "Inequality and Support for Government Responses to COVID-19," GLO Discussion Paper Series 694, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    18. Dütsch, Matthias, 2022. "COVID-19 and the labour market: What are the working conditions in critical jobs?," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 56, pages 1-10.
    19. Narges Ghoroubi & Emilie Counil & Myriam Khlat, 2022. "Socio-Demographic Composition and Potential Occupational Exposure to SARS-CoV2 under Routine Working Conditions among Key Workers in France," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-14, June.
    20. Christopher Avery, 2021. "A Simple Model of Social Distancing and Vaccination," NBER Working Papers 29463, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    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:pone00:0258121. 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.