Iranian college students’ intention towards social distancing in COVID-19 pandemic: An application of the extended theory of planned behavior

ABSTRACT

Social distancing as a health-related behavior during epidemics and pandemics, can significantly influence their control. In this regard, the identification of the factors influencing behavior change can play a remarkable role in assessing for how behaviors form. This paper is an attempt to show that the extended theory of planned behavior can provide a useful theoretical framework for explaining social distancing in the face of a contagion disease. The results showed that the constructs of attitude, descriptive norms, perceived behavioral control, and self-efficacy significantly influenced the students’ intention to adhere to social distancing in the form of university closure. Among these constructs, self-efficacy was found to be the main predictor of the students’ intention. Interestingly, the research revealed that injunctive norms were not a significant predictor of the students’ intention. Practically, this study is a justification for the use of attitude, descriptive norms, perceived behavioral control, and self-efficacy in planning and decision-making for encouraging students to adhere to social distancing during epidemics and pandemics, like the COVID-19 pandemic. The extended theory of planned behavior is useful in understanding Iranian College Students’ Intention toward Social Distancing in COVID-19 Pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• social distancing
• university closure
• theory of planned behavior
• self-efficacy
• Iran

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge all the respondents who agreed to complete the survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval

A cross-sectional study was employed to investigate students’ explaining social distancing in the face of a contagion disease. All participants agreed to complete the questionnaire.