Psychological correlates of COVID safety protocol adherence among university students.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a global concern. Reports of insidious asymptomatic variants of the virus raise concerns about the safety of huge numbers of students on university campuses.

Objective: The study aimed to delineate psychological correlates for students' adherence to safety protocols for appropriate context-specific coping intervention designs.

Setting & design: 751 students from the various colleges of the KNUST were conveniently sampled for this cross-sectional survey.

Measures: Psychological instruments with good psychometric properties (DASS-21; Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and Perceived Control Scales) were used in addition to demographics and questions on COVID safety protocol adherence.

Results: Self-esteem positively correlated with perceived control (r = 0.40, p<0.001) and COVID adherence (r = 0.16, p<0.001); but negatively correlated with psychological distress (r = -0.44 p<0.001). Greater perceived control was associated with lower psychological distress (r = -0.20 p<0.001) and greater adherence to safety protocols (r = 0.24 p<0.001). Protocol adherence was regressed on psychological distress, self-esteem, and perceived control to determine any significant prediction. All the variables accounted for 7% of the variance in COVID protocol adherence (R² = 0.07, F (3, 661) =17.29, p<0.001) with perceived control significantly predicting adherence to COVID safety protocol (B = 0.11, β=0.23, t=5.54 p<0.001).

Conclusion: Results indicated that perceived control over important life events and healthy self-esteem would likely facilitate adherence to COVID safety protocols and attenuate psychological distress. Implications for further research and design of appropriate COVID coping response interventions are discussed.

Funding: Internally generated.