A moderated mediation model of trust, self-construal and compliance with COVID-19 health regulations based on country differences

Earlier studies examined the extent to which self-construal has an impact on individual compliance with COVID-19 regulations. However, existing literature has paid little significant attention to the behavioural outcome of self-construal across countries and cultures. The aim of this study was; 1) to determine whether interdependent self-construal predicts compliance with COVID-19 public health regulation, 2) to examine if the association was mediated by individual social trust, and 3) to test whether these associations were moderated by the respondents' country of residence (US x Indonesia). General adult respondents from the US (N=231) and Indonesia (N=440) voluntarily participated to complete a survey about trust in the government, interdependent self-construal orientation and compliance toward COVID-19 public health regulation. The mediation analysis using Hayes PROCESS macro demonstrated a significant role of social trust in mediating the association between interdependent self-construal and compliance. In addition, the moderation analysis of participants’ country differences (US x Indonesia) toward the link between interdependent self-construal and compliance showed a significant result. This current finding indicated that the effects of interdependent self-construal on compliance differed between the US and Indonesian groups. In contrast to those living in Indonesia, individuals residing in the US who showed greater access to inter-dependent self-construal demonstrated a greater tendency to adhere to the regulation when compared to those with a higher score in independent self-construal. Discussion and Implications of the study were discussed in the following paper. ; Full Text