Hope and Fear in the Midst of Coronavirus: What Accounts for COVID-19 Preparedness?

Abstract

Objective: The present study asks the question: What variables accounted for people’s tendencies to take steps to prepare for COVID-19 during the earliest stage of the pandemic? Data collection took place from March 6 to 11, 2020. In particular, the study examines variables that have been shown to predict health behavior in previous research outside the context of the present pandemic, including hope, optimism, perceived risk, fear, and mental health variables. Method: Participants (222 adults in 39 U.S. states) were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Online surveys included the Adult Hope Scale (AHS), Life Orientation Test (LOT-R), Health Anxiety Inventory (HAI), Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), Impact of Events Scale (IES-R), and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Also included were items inquiring about COVID-19 perceived mortality risk, fear/anxiety, and preparedness. Results and Conclusion: Participants were asked to imagine that COVID-19 had different hypothetical levels of mortality risk, ranging from 1 to 10 percent mortality (at the time of data collection, the WHO estimated actual mortality of the disease at approximately 3 percent). For each level, participants rated the degree to which they would be willing to take steps to prepare and protect themselves from the disease on a 7-point scale. Nearly 49 percent of participants said they would be relatively unlikely (i.e., provided a rating below the midpoint of the scale) to take steps to protect themselves if the mortality rate were at the 3 percent level. Stepwise multiple regression including the aforementioned predictors showed that three variables accounted for unique variance in participants’ levels of current preparedness: COVID-19 fear/anxiety, posttraumatic stress (as measured by the IES-R), and hope. Implications of these results are briefly discussed in the context of raising preparedness given that future public health crises are likely inevitable.

The Unique Role of Hope and Optimism in the Relationship between Environmental Quality and Life Satisfaction during COVID-19 Pandemic

“…A striking distinction among optimism and hope is that the confidence built is not guaranteed to include pathways and inspirational thinking in the form of motivation [59]. Getting ready to safeguard oneself amidst COVID-19 includes some proportion of individual control [24]. Thus, hope might be more powerful in the midst of the pandemic where people see more noteworthy control of the climate.…”

“…[21] asserted that optimism and hope can be considered as the fundamental paths in adapting to horrendous life occasions by trusting in a greater future, and along these lines, may act as interceding factors. It is well documented in the literature that hope and optimism are consider two distinct concepts [24]. In many ways, hope and optimism can still be similar in a way that both hopeful and optimistic individuals are looking forward to a positive outcome to happen in the future [25].…”

The Role of COVID-19 Vaccine Perception, Hope, and Fear on the Travel Bubble Program

“…Perceived efficacy is essential in individuals’ appraisal of coping mechanisms [ 53 ]. In other words, individuals may feel less fearful of the COVID-19 pandemic if they believe that the available vaccines have the ability to prevent infections or reduce the symptom severity [ 23 ]. Although many were optimistic about the vaccines, their remarkable pace of development and mixed early results have installed some vaccine safety concerns [ 40 , 54 ].…”

“…Then, a favorable attitude towards vaccination may also lead to a favorable attitude towards the travel bubble program as proof of vaccination is a critical component for partaking in the program. At the same time, the subjective evaluation or emotional responses to the overall pandemic situation can be immensely powerful in promoting engagement in various activities [ 23 , 24 ]. More specifically, due to the uncertain feelings developed by the pandemic’s ever-changing situations emotions such as hope (positive emotion) and fear (negative emotion), the travel bubble initiative could bring excitement to travelers and potentially restart international tourism [ 25 , 26 , 27 ].…”

Quality of life and emergency preparedness of MHO staff: role of psychological capital and perceived organizational support

“…(2017), Weber et al. (2020) and Feldman (2021), we believe that positive psychological resources can translate into positive motivation for MHO staff to engage in emergency preparedness (both cooperative and non-cooperative preparedness). However, the empirical results did not completely support our conceptual model.…”