COVID-19 in social networks: unravelling its impact on youth risk perception, motivations and protective behaviours during the initial stages of the pandemic

The study explores the roles of youth prosocial, self-interested and controlled motivations to comply with recommended protective behaviour during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. We test the interrelations of awareness of COVID-19 cases in social network, risk perception, motivation and behaviour, via structural equation modelling on self-reported data from 1,265 undergraduate university students. Analysis identified prosocial motivation and self-interested motivation as equally strong for predicting young people’s behaviour while controlled motivation revealed no association. The presence of known COVID-19 cases in social networks could differently affect perceived risks of disease and motivation to comply with protective measures. While awareness of severe consequences positively affects motivation, awareness of mild cases, in contrast, decreases perceived disease severity.