Fighting ahead: Adoption of social distancing in COVID-19 outbreak through the lens of theory of planned behavior

This study, being explorative, aims to identify the antecedents of social distancing behavior among people in a collective society, in Bangladesh. Based on the social-psychological behavioral model, i.e. theory of planned behavior (TPB), the current study incorporates attitudes, subjective norms, pe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of human behavior in the social environment 2021-05, Vol.31 (1-4), p.373-393
Main Authors: Das, Anupam Kumar, Abdul Kader Jilani, Munshi Muhammad, Uddin, Mohammad Shahab, Uddin, Md. Aftab, Ghosh, Ajoy Kumer
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
COVID-19
Deductive reasoning
Distancing behaviour
Health behavior
Health problems
Locus of control
Perceived control
Policy making
psycho-social factors
Psychological theories
Self control
Social distance
Social distancing
social distancing behavior
Social networks
Social pressure
Theory of planned behavior
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Summary:This study, being explorative, aims to identify the antecedents of social distancing behavior among people in a collective society, in Bangladesh. Based on the social-psychological behavioral model, i.e. theory of planned behavior (TPB), the current study incorporates attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention to assess their influence on actual social distancing behavior. The present study followed the deductive reasoning approach to conduct the research. A self-administered questionnaire was utilized to collect data from 331 respondents through social networks purposively and later analyzed using SPSS-21 and AMOS-20 to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that attitude toward social distancing, social pressure, and perceived control to social distance significantly influence the intention to maintain social distance. The core finding is that perceived behavioral control (directly and indirectly) is the most profound antecedent followed by subjective norms of both intention and actual social distancing behavior. We conclude by providing policy implications for policymakers and health concerns to focus on upholding the attitudinal awareness, normative beliefs, and self-control approach of people for maintaining social distance and behave proactively to contain the outbreak, as well as potential notes for further research.
ISSN:1091-1359
1540-3556
DOI:10.1080/10911359.2020.1833804