“Not me!”: Optimistic bias and college students’ perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and self-efficacy in following COVID-19 preventive guidelines

Abstract

Objective The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for university administrators and health professionals to keep doors open and students safe. Optimistic bias and the Health Belief Model serve as foundations for understanding students’ perceived susceptibility and severity for contracting the virus and their perceived benefits and self-efficacy for following prevention recommendations. Participants: A total of 1,773 undergraduate and graduate students from a large mid-western university participated. Methods: Students were emailed an online survey examining their perceptions and knowledge of COVID-19 and their adherence to recommended preventive measures. Results: Almost one-half of students do not think they will get COVID-19 but said their friends are at risk. The majority are following most Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations and understand the perceived benefits of doing so. Conclusions: Results could aid university officials in developing effective COVID-19 messages that could lead to reductions in cases numbers, deaths, and spread of the virus.

Keywords:

• College students
• COVID-19
• health belief model
• optimistic bias

Acknowledgments

The second author would like to thank the College Vice Deanship for Graduate Studies and Scientific Research and the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for their support.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Bowling Green State University.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.