?
Social Axioms and Individual Values as Predictors of COVID-19 Fear among University Students from Countries with Different Government Strategies for Managing the Pandemic
Background. Effective prevention of psychological trauma by fear of COVID-19 requires the study of the relationships between psychological and contextual factors that can influence the level of this fear. The social axioms, the individual values, and the government strategies of managing the pandemic have not yet been studied as a system of psychological and contextual factors of COVID-19 fear.
Objective. The aim of this study was to assess the level of COVID-19 fear and the characteristics of relationships between the social axioms, the individual values, and fear of COVID-19 among university students that are citizens of countries with the different government strategies of managing the pandemic.
Design. University students from countries with different government strategies of managing the pandemic (208 Belarusians, 200 Kazakhstanis, and 250 Russians aged 18 to 25) participated in an anonymous online survey. The respondents filled in questionnaires that assessed the manifestations of COVID-19 fear (COVID-19 Fear Scale (FCV-19S)) as the dependent variables, social axioms with the “Social Axiom Questionnaire” (QSA-31), and individual values with the “Portrait Value Questionnaire” (ESS-21) as the independent variables.
Results. Fear of COVID-19 has a higher level among the student youth of the countries with the weakest (Belarus) and the strongest (Kazakhstan) restrictive measures during the pandemic. Dysfunctional fear of COVID-19 is among those Belarusian students who attach the greatest importance to the self-enhancement values, the fate control axiom, and who attach the least importance of the social complexity axiom, as well as among those Russian students, for whom the religiosity social axiom is significant and the social complexity axiom is not significant. For Kazakhstani students, social axioms and values are not predictors of dysfunctional fear of COVID-19.
Conclusion. The greatest contribution of social axioms and individual values to the experience of COVID-19 fear among student youth is observed in the conditions of incompatibility of actions of the authorities with existing pandemic risks (in Belarus), as well as in the conditions when a variability of assessment of threats level is possible (in Russia).