Socio-psychological profile of Latvian inhabitants who did not comply with the COVID-19 epidemiological requirements

Abstract

Since the beginning of 2020, the world has been affected by the corona virus COVID-19. Since the spring, a number of nations around the world, including Latvia, have declared a state of emergency, with specific government restrictions developed in cooperation with WHO, to reduce spread of the COVID-19. The aim of this study is to examine socio-psychological profile of Latvian inhabitants who did not comply with the COVID-19 epidemiological requirements. A randomized nationally representative sample (N = 2608, aged from 18–74, men 39.8%, women 60.2%) from the online survey, carried out in the frame of the National research program, project Nr. VPP-COVID-2020/1-0011, was used in this study. The results showed that less compliant with COVID-19 epidemiological requirements were males, rural inhabitants, persons aged less than 60 years old, unemployed, with lower education level, and those, who are less afraid of COVID-19 and think that its dangerousness is exaggerated. Compliance with the restrictions did not relate to the marital and parental status. Based on this study, policy suggestions were made regarding a more targeted way of the providing important information on the preventive behaviour to reduce the spread of the virus.