Arab women feelings while seeking information during COVID-19 pandemic: applying PMT constructs

Abstract

PurposeThis study investigates the effect of protection motivation theory (PMT) constructs on Arab women's feelings while seeking information during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe study has adopted a mixed-method approach using semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire to explore PMT constructs' impact on women's feelings while seeking information on COVID-19. Several tests, such as standard deviation, mean, skewness, kurtosis and persons, were used to check the reliability of data and inter-relationships between constructs.FindingsThe study results show a significant positive correlation between PMT constructs (perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, response efficacy, self-efficacy and response cost) with the feelings of Arab women during information seeking on COVID-19. However, the relationship between threat appraisal and feelings during information seeking was more substantial than coping appraisal and feelings during information seeking. The researchers hope that this study creates a baseline of cross-cultural studies on PMT constructs' effect on women's feelings while seeking health information.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study was conducted on female participants only. While the study intended to examine Arab women's feelings during information seeking with PMT's application, the results may be affected by other factors that were not considered in the current study. Furthermore, the questionnaire was distributed in three Arab countries, which means that the results cannot be generalized in other geographical contexts. Therefore, similar studies need to be conducted in larger geographical areas as cultural factors may produce different results.Originality/valueThis study explores women's feelings while seeking COVID-19 information using the PMT constructs. As far as we know, this study is the first study to investigate Arab women's feelings while seeking health information during pandemics. PMT utilization is considered a new approach to discover and measure informational needs and feelings associated with it during pandemics.

Information Behavior of Mothers during Pandemics: The Case of COVID-19

“…Their information needs shifted towards following updates on the epidemiological situation. Previous literature supported these results and showed changes in information needs during public health emergences (Alwreikat, Shehata, & Eldakkar, 2021) and (Sharifirad et al, 2014).…”

“…Measures of stress and coping can explain such behaviour. in a very interesting study by Alwreikat, Shehata, & Eldakkar (2021) they found that Arab women had stressful times dealing with the information on COVID-19 because negative feelings as part of the threat appraisal were presence while seeking information on the virus. Such negative feelings triggers a coping behaviour to deal with information on the virus and avoid reading negative information.…”

Understanding the “infodemic”: social media news use, homogeneous online discussion, self-perceived media literacy and misperceptions about COVID-19

“…In sum, the COVID-19-related misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories have arguably reached a peak amidst the pandemic, and the WHO director-general has argued that we are not just facing a pandemic; we're also fighting an infodemic. An infodemic refers to the state of over-abundance of information, including both authentic and misinformation, which prevents individuals from rationally and clearly distinguishing between verified and unverified information (Alwreikat et al, 2021;Zeng and Chan, 2021). The utilization of social media for news gathering, one's network of discussion, as well as whether an individual is literate enough to process media information, might have both contributed to and been affected by the infodemic (Apuke and Omar, 2021a).…”

“…In sum, the COVID-19-related misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories have arguably reached a peak amidst the pandemic, and the WHO director-general has argued that we are not just facing a pandemic; we're also fighting an infodemic. An infodemic refers to the state of over-abundance of information, including both authentic and misinformation, which prevents individuals from rationally and clearly distinguishing between verified and unverified information (Alwreikat et al. , 2021; Zeng and Chan, 2021).…”

Trust in information sources as a moderator of the impact of COVID-19 anxiety and exposure to information on conspiracy thinking and misinformation beliefs: a multilevel study

“…In addition, it was found that exposure to misinformation increased the level of depression [69]. In order to alleviate these feelings, individuals looked for more information that might comfort them [70].…”