BACKGROUND
COVID-19 preventive perceptions and behaviors, especially among U.S. Millennials, are an important means by which the pandemic can be slowed and negative health outcomes can be averted.
OBJECTIVE
This manuscript aims to advance knowledge on COVID-19 preventive perceptions and behaviors and their main predictors, including digital health information seeking behavior (HISB), political party identification, and COVID-19 testing status.
METHODS
Two cross-sectional online surveys of U.S. Millennials were conducted from April 10-14, 2020 (N=274) and April 27-May 7, 2020 (N=1,037). Regression analyses predicted five dependent variables (i.e., preventive behaviors and perceptions of severity, susceptibility, self-efficacy, and response efficacy), with independent variables including digital HISB for self, digital HISB for another person, political party identification, and COVID-19 testing status.
RESULTS
Millennials reported lower levels of perceived susceptibility than the other three preventive perceptions (i.e., severity, self-efficacy, response efficacy), as well as fairly high levels of preventive behaviors. Unlike HISB for another person, digital HISB for self was positively associated with the preventive perceptions and behaviors. Respondents who reported being more Republican tended to have lower levels of preventive perceptions, but not lower levels of preventive behaviors. COVID-19 testing status had only two significant effects on the preventive perceptions and behaviors.
CONCLUSIONS
As the largest and most digitally-savvy generation, Millennials saw COVID-19 as a severe threat, but one that they were less susceptible to. For the Millennial generation, which grew up with the Internet, digital HISB is critical to the development of preventive perceptions and behaviors. These findings have implications for theory, policy, and practical intervention.