Social Environment and Attitudes toward COVID-19 Anti-Contagious Measures: An Explorative Study from Italy

Alessandro Gennaro, Matteo Reho (), Tiziana Marinaci, Barbara Cordella, Marco Castiglioni, Cristina Liviana Caldiroli and Claudia Venuleo
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Alessandro Gennaro: Department of Dynamic Clinical and Health Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Matteo Reho: Department of Dynamic Clinical and Health Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Tiziana Marinaci: Department of Human and Social Sciences, Salento University, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Barbara Cordella: Department of Dynamic Clinical and Health Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Marco Castiglioni: Department of Human Sciences “R. Massa”, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
Cristina Liviana Caldiroli: Department of Human Sciences “R. Massa”, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
Claudia Venuleo: Department of Human and Social Sciences, Salento University, 73100 Lecce, Italy

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: Social and cultural aspects (i.e., political decision making, discourses in the public sphere, and people’s mindsets) played a crucial role in the ways people responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Framed with the Semiotic-Cultural Psychological Theory (SCPT), the present work aims to explore how individual ways of making sense of their social environment affected individuals’ perception of government measures aimed at managing the pandemic and the adherence to such measures. An online survey was administered from January to April 2021 to the Italian population. Retrieved questionnaires (N = 378) were analyzed through a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) to detect the factorial dimensions underpinning (dis)similarities in the respondents’ ways of interpreting their social environment. Extracted factors were interpreted as markers of Latent Dimensions of Sense (LDSs) organizing respondents’ worldviews. Finally, three regression models tested the role of LDSs in supporting the individual satisfaction with the measures adopted to contain the social contagion defined at national level, individual adherence to the containment measures and the perception of the population’s adherence to them. Results highlight that all the three measures are associated with a negative view of the social environment characterized by a lack of confidence in public institutions (health system, government), public roles and other people. Findings are discussed on the one hand to shed light on the role of deep-rooted cultural views in defining personal evaluations of government measures and adherence capacity. On the other hand, we suggest that taking into account people’s meaning-making can guide public health officials and policy makers to comprehend what favors or hinders adaptive responses to emergencies or social crises.

Keywords: pandemic; adherence; satisfaction; culture; sense-making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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