Factors Affecting Adherence to Safety Behaviors in the Initial Exposure to Covid-19

The widespread outbreak of coronavirus caused several behavioral reactions regarding the observance of health instructions and safety behaviors. Doing a survey, this study tried to discover the causes of these reactions. The statistical population included all people over 15. Using convenience sampling 939 people were selected. Data analysis was performed using SPSS and Emus software at levels of descriptive and inferential statistics. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were run to obtain and specify components. In order to validate the pattern of causal relationships between variables, the structural equation model and path analysis were used. The results showed that gender in favor of women, education in lower levels, psychological adjustment in favor of people with less psychological adjustment, and social positivity in favor of positive thinkers, affect directly on the level of adherence to safe behaviors. Moreover, increasing age was effective on adherence to safety behaviors through influencing psychological adjustment, positive attitude towards government performance, and social positivity. Marital status, positive attitude towards the performance of the government and one’s birth state have also an indirect effect on the observance of safety behaviors through the influence on spiritual positivity (due to the influence of the aforementioned variable on social positivity).