Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought dramatic life changes to individuals across the world. Personal cultural orientations of these individuals alter the way individuals respond to the pandemic and their mental wellness. This research investigates how personal cultural orientations impact college students’ mental health primarily anxiety, prevention behaviors and intentions to reduce the spread of COVID-19, and active coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants (n=155) completed measures of independence, ambiguity intolerance, masculinity, gender equality, mental health, prevention behaviors to reduce the spread of COVID-19, and active coping strategies to protect themselves during the pandemic. Results revealed that people with higher levels of independence more actively engaged in active coping strategies. People with higher levels of ambiguity intolerance related to more mental problems, more actively engaged in coping strategies and prevention behaviors. People with higher levels of masculinity related to more mental problems, less actively engaged in coping strategies and prevention behaviors. Lastly, people with higher levels of gender equality related to fewer mental problems, more actively engaged in coping strategies and prevention behaviors. These findings highlight the importance of the interplay between personal cultural orientations and both prevention behaviors and engagement in active coping strategies during times of crisis. Additional findings also show that females tend to have more anxiety than males and engage more in prevention behaviors and coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, people with higher household incomes (>$60,000) tend to have more mental stress than people with lower household incomes (
Semester/Year of Award
Spring 5-1-2023
Mentor
Dr. Qian Xiao
Mentor Department Affiliation
Business
Access Options
Open Access Thesis
Degree Name
Honors Scholars
Degree Level
Bachelors
Department
Business
IRB Approval Number (if applicable)
4950
Recommended Citation
Ouyang, Joanna, "Impacts of Personal Cultural Orientations on College Students’ Psychological Health and Preventive Behaviors During the COVID-19 Period" (2023). Honors Theses. 940.
https://encompass.eku.edu/honors_theses/940
