United We Stand, Divided We Fall: Sociopolitical Predictors of Physical Distancing and Hand Hygiene During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Most health models emphasize individual factors in predicting health behavior. However, in the context of COVID-19 where the immediate response to stopping the spread of the virus requires collective efforts and change, other sociopolitical factors need to be considered. Prior research points to health behaviors being impacted by neighborhood and national social relations, social identification, confidence in government and political orientation. This research, though, is generally piecemeal (or specific), tends to be cross-sectional, and is usually not oriented to pandemics. These issues are addressed in the current research. A two-wave study with a representative sample of Australians (N = 3028) gathered during COVID-19 examined sociopolitical factors at the local and national level as predictors of health behaviors one month later. Four models were tested. These encapsulated geographic levels (local or national) and two health behaviors (hand hygiene or physical distance). In the three of the four models, social identification was a significant predictor of health behavior, while controlling for sociodemographic and individual-level measures. There were more mixed results for social relations and confidence in government. There is evidence that to better promote health behaviors sociopolitical factors need to be more prominent in public policy and health behavior models. Highlights The goal of this study is to examine how sociopolitical factors impact physical distance and hand hygiene during the Australian COVID-19 pandemic. Based on social cohesion literature and the social identity approach, we expected three social cohesion dimensions (social identification, confidence in government and social relations) to predict greater health behaviors one month later. Political orientation was also expected to predict health behaviors. The results show that social identification consistently predicts health behaviors, with weaker evidence for political orientation and confidence in the government, and mixed evidence for social relations. This research highlights the importance of considering and strengthening the sociopolitical context in our response to pandemics.