Some characteristics were found to be similar, while others illustrated significant differences. The proportion of young male and female respondents was 2. Considering the household size of respondents, a noticeable proportion of male respondents belonged to large households. The majority of both male and female respondents belong to a household size of 5—7 people.
The family structure of the respondents, however, was somewhat similar. Most of the male and female respondents were nucleus, i. A difference between male and female respondents was observed in terms of average monthly income. This shows that female respondents earn less than male respondents.
Overall, the socioeconomic status of male and female respondents was different in terms of age, household size, and income. All the indicator values for the fear domain were found to be above average. Females were found to more fearful and worried in all the mentioned aspects of the fear domain. This suggests that women need more access to information to enhance their knowledge of the pandemic.
Bish and Michie also suggested focusing on demographic-based communication mechanism could limit fear [ 46 ]. The perception about the disruption of daily lifestyle as well as the perceived danger to family and community was found to be very high among the male and female population.
This higher level of fear and worry among the female population may be associated with greater psychological vulnerability of pandemic outbreaks and a higher level of stress. These results are also supported by other studies e. However, the findings did not collaborate with other research studies [ 49 ]. Mean and standard deviation values of the indicators measuring risk perception in male and female groups.
The mean values of behaviour and attitude indicators were also found to be above average. However, the female population perceives slightly lower capacities to deal with COVID compared to the male population. Lower capacities of the female population may be linked with a lower level of knowledge and income level.
The perceived ability to change the lifestyle due to pandemic was found to be similar among the male and female populations. However, the perception of changing social relations with relatives, friends, neighbours, and colleagues was slightly lower in female groups mean value 3. In Pakistan, social relations and networks with families and relatives are important, especially for females, and therefore the scores were slightly lower for females in Pakistan. This study is in agreement with the study by Galasso et al.
Awareness and knowledge of protection measures against pandemic and their associated risks shape the risk perception. This suggested that both male and female groups are highly familiar with the precautionary measures while the female population is slightly more familiar with protective measures than the male group.
Clark et al. However, both groups think that their communities are unprotected from the pandemic. Still, the female population was slightly less aware of unknown risks compared to a male population group. This suggests that communities are lacking preventive facilities and unaware of the unknown risk.
Therefore, interventions are needed to enhance the knowledge of people and adopt appropriate gender-sensitive measures to limit pandemic spread.
Trust in government institutions is key in influencing the risk perception of communities. The values of all the indicators were found to be above average both for male and female groups. There are similarities and differences found for trust indicators among males and females. Both male and female trust the government provided pandemic related information in the same way.
Similarly, no difference was seen among males and females regarding reliance on non-official information sources. This suggests that both groups do not rely on non-government information sources. Moreover, there is no difference based on gender regarding trust and confidence in science and technology to prepare a vaccine in one year.
Results suggested that compared to male groups, female groups trust more in government institutes like disaster management and public health departments, local governments, responses of provincial and federal governments to deal with the COVID situation [ 36 ]. Thus, the trust dimension of risk perception differs significantly when considering gender aspects. The results underscored that females perceived risk more than the male population in various dimensions of risk perception.
In terms of fear, the female population group was found to be more afraid 3. The T-test has also confirmed it and indicated a significant difference see Table 5. The perceived extent of awareness and knowledge of precautionary measures to reduce COVID risk were also found to be the same among the male 3. The trust and confidence dimension of risk perceptions differs between males 3. Table 5 depicts that perception of trust and confidence was more among female groups compared to male groups.
The difference is found to be significant see Table 5. The female population fear and worry more because of the pandemic, and they trust more in government actions, which may have resulted in higher risk perception.
The results are supported by other studies e. The cultural elements and influences might also have played a role in having such a gender-sensitive response. One's own home space is generally perceived safer for females in comparison to the outdoor spaces in Pakistani society, which also makes them less mobile and more dependent on the male members of their households in meeting their traveling needs Ahmad, ; Masood, Though all other indicators have been found insignificant with the gender difference, their associated mean values still provide some clue to gender influence on the problem-oriented domain of the coping mechanisms.
Except for the last indicator under this domain, i. Mean and standard deviation values of the indicators measuring coping mechanisms in male and female groups. The associated mean values reflect that females were more concerned with opting for emotions-oriented coping strategies in response to the Covid pandemic than the males.
These findings also reflect on the mental construct of the females in Pakistani society, where they were more dependent on the male members of their households for carrying out many of their outdoor activities [ 53 ]. Such dependence generates a mindset that hinders taking initiatives rather than encourages waiting for the needed support or for things to happen. Likewise, waiting for miracles to happen is another offshoot of the same mindset, while males, more active in taking initiatives, believe less in miracles as the panacea to crises.
Also, females were better at controlling their emotions by diverting their focus on food or medicine intake. Pakistani culture mainly assigns the cooking and housekeeping duty to the female members of the households, which also turns out to be a pastime hobby for many females.
That is why females were found more indulged in eating habits as a remedy to distract themselves from COVID related fear and anxiety. All other indicators under the emotion-oriented domain of the coping mechanisms have been found insignificant for the gender difference.
The majority of the labour force in Pakistan consists of males, thus keeping themselves busy in the work-related activities turned out a coping strategy practiced more by the males.
Also, having more exposure to the outdoor space enabled the male members to observe normal routines during the COVID crisis time, making them less susceptible to believing in the restrictive measures going around in response to the COVID pandemic. Overall, a significant difference was seen between males and females in the emotion-oriented domain. This result was consistent with the study of Gerhold The associated mean values reflect that females were more active than males in adopting this specific action-oriented strategy.
As reported in section 5. They were found less active than females in buying protective equipment. All other indicators have been found insignificant for the gender difference. However, the mean values of all other indicators except one have been found higher for females than males, which provides a clue that females were more active than males in adopting action-oriented strategies in response to tackle the consequences of the COVID pandemic.
Combining the results of all the coping mechanism domains provided integrated values for the overall coping mechanisms being practiced by the respondents of the study during the COVID pandemic.
The t -test values for all the domains of the coping mechanisms have been found significant Table 7 with negative values which show that the females coded 2 opted for the coping strategies more than the males coded 1 during the COVID pandemic. The overall coping mechanism also bears the same result concerning the significance p-value 0. Overall, investigating the gender aspect of the coping mechanisms reveals that females were more active in adopting coping strategies than males.
Before interpreting the results of the generated regression models, it is important to report on the goodness-of-fit of these models. The F values of both generated models of risk perception 3. If we see the values that the risk perception and coping mechanism models have generated, it comes out that though gender is significantly associated with the risk perception and coping mechanism, however, the effect of this correlation is small.
According to the generated models, gender can explain only 0. Though small, but for a single variable contributing to the overall risk perception and coping mechanisms, these results are still significant. Risk perception and coping mechanisms are the mental constructs that are made up of so many variables, and gender is also one of them. According to the literature findings, the risk perceptions and coping mechanisms are significantly related to many variables, including income [ 54 ], education [ 32 ], age [ 44 , 55 , 56 ], behaviour [ 57 ] and gender [ 5 , 21 , 34 , 58 , 59 ].
Moreover, there are sufficient studies that show a clear relationship of gender with income [ 60 ], education [ 61 ] and mobility pattern [ 62 ], etc. If viewed in such a broader perspective, gender plays an important role in developing the risk perceptions and the adopted coping mechanism strategies. Impact of gender on risk perception and coping mechanism using a simple linear regression model. The positive values of the generated models suggest a positive relationship between gender and risk perception and coping mechanisms.
It means when the gender is changed from male coded 1 to female coded 2 , the risk perception and coping mechanism values are increased. It simply implies that females perceived COVID related risks more than males and consequently were found more active in adopting coping mechanism strategies than males.
This finding confirms some of the past studies [ 6 , 36 ]. The mathematical formulation of the generated models helped to deduce the change in the values of outcome variables, i. When the gender is changed from male to female in the generated models, the values for risk perception is increased by 2. These are the significant variations in the results of risk perception and coping mechanisms with respect to gender, and thus confirm the significant role of gender in developing the risk perception and coping mechanisms of the target population under investigation.
It has become apparent that COVID will now be a part of human lives, and would change personal and work lifestyles for at least some years. In this context, risk perception and coping mechanisms are important for surviving in a pandemic situation.
Using established methodologies, risk perception and coping mechanisms have been quantified. Statistical tests have confirmed significant differences in fear and trust domains of risk perception.
Moreover, it has also been ascertained that men and women responded differently in coping with the pandemic. This study also concludes that the role of gender among other variables is significant in developing the risk perception and coping mechanisms for the society.
It further concludes that females perceived risks associated with the COVID pandemic more than the males, and thus, were more active in practicing prevention in response to the pandemic. It is an important finding which can steer the government policy response towards tackling the pandemic crisis. The awareness campaigns for risk communication needs to target male members of the society more to increase their understanding of the severity of this crisis, and to act more seriously to tackle the pandemic situations.
In short, this study advocates the integration of gender components in tailoring future pandemic risk communication and reduction strategies. Risk perception is tricky to quantify as a myriad of factors influences it — this presents some limitations. The use of a non-probability sampling technique limits the analysis for generalization for a larger population. Moreover, the sampled population was mostly educated with access to the internet.
Thus, for making a more robust analysis, socioeconomically diverse samples are needed to widely confirm gender influence on risk perception and coping mechanisms. More advanced statistical techniques can be adopted to rigorously test other hypotheses in the future. It is also proposed to examine the role of spatial aspects and sociocultural norms in shaping the COVID risk perception. Further, the function of media and relevant institutions, and their risk communication strategies need to be studied in more detail.
Nevertheless, this research, despite not encompassing a socioeconomically diverse and large sample due to the limitations posed by COVID, helps in understanding the pandemic risk from a gender perspective.
The study highlights different domains of risk perception and coping mechanisms, which can help disaster managers, public health experts, policymakers, and related social scientists to reduce pandemics risk and introduce effective public interventions. Without incorporating the gender perspective, risk-informed COVID communication will remain incomplete, and any preparedness initiatives taken will be more likely to fail.
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U.
Int J Disaster Risk Reduct. Published online Feb 2. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. All rights reserved. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVIDrelated research that is available on the COVID resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source.
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract The novel coronavirus disease COVID emerged as a real threat to humans, drastically disrupting everyday life in — Gender and pandemics Pandemics and epidemics are not something new to humanity and several devastating occurrences been recorded in the past [ 13 ].
Risk perception The concept of risk perception is used to examine why people are taking or not taking precautions against external threats [ 29 ]. Coping mechanism The year is an unprecedented year of transition and this change has been traumatic for many as people's jobs, social lives, and well-being are adversely affected [ 35 ].
Methods The focus of this study is to understand if males and females perceive COVID risk and adopt methods to cope with this pandemic differently. Questionnaire design and data collection A comprehensive questionnaire was designed which captured the socioeconomic profile age, education, household size, marital status, type of family, average income of the respondents, their COVID related risk perception, and the behavioural approaches they adopted to cope with the adverse impacts of this pandemic.
F-4 Disruption of daily lifestyle How much are you worried that this pandemic would disturb your daily lifestyle? F-5 Perceived danger to your family How much are you worried that this pandemic is a danger for your family? F-6 Perceived danger to your community How much do you think this pandemic is a danger for your community? F-7 Fear on the basis of current knowledge How much afraid are you about this pandemic based on current knowledge?
Behaviour and Attitude B-1 Perceived incapacity to deal How much do you think can deal with the consequences of this pandemic? B-3 Change in relationships How much do you think this pandemic can change your relationship with your neighbours and relatives? Awareness and Knowledge A-1 Perceived extent of familiarity How much are you familiar with precautionary measures against this pandemic?
A-2 Perceived community unprotection How much is your community is protected from this pandemic? Trust and Confidence T-1 Trust on information acquired from official sources How much do you trust the information provided by the government about this pandemic?
T-4 Trust in disaster management policies and strategies How much do you trust in emergency management policies in dealing with this pandemic? T-5 Trust in the information given by the local government How much do you trust the information provided by your government about this pandemic? T-6 Trust in response by the provincial or federal government How much do you trust the response provided by your government? This is because tests can be canceled, rescheduled, or relocated due to road construction or bad weather.
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The third study aims at identifying reliable and valid subtypes of young drivers on the basis of personality characteristics. The fourth study has a different point of departure, focusing on the role of adolescent passengers rather than the drivers. This last study examines factors that may enhance or prevent adolescent passengers to promote safe driving among their peer drivers.
The reported attitudes on the dimensions demonstrated that adolescents think differently concerning these aspects of traffic safety. On some dimensions, most adolescents report quite ideal attitudes concerning safety, on other dimensions the picture is the opposite. The attitude dimensions identified were related to both risk-taking behaviour in traffic and accident involvement. However, the influence of the various dimensions on behaviour differed in magnitude.
This implies that some dimensions were more important predictors of behaviour than others. Thus, the attitude dimensions with the highest correspondence with self-reported behaviour could be given special attention when traffic safety programs are carried out. The results of study 2 suggested that the relation between the personality traits and driving violations was mediated through attitudes.
On this basis it was concluded that personality traits primarily influence risky driving behaviour indirectly through affecting the attitudinal determinants of the behaviour. A practical implication of the results would be to acknowledge the importance of personality traits in traffic safety campaigns. Consequently, the messages of attitude campaigns could be tailored according to certain personality characteristic, in order to appeal to high-risk drivers.
Study 3 identified six subtypes of young drivers on the basis of a cluster analysis of personality measures. The subtypes were found to differ on self-reported risky driving behaviour, attitudes towards traffic safety, risk perception, estimation of own driving skills, and accident involvement.
Two of the subtypes were identified as high-risk groups in traffic. The subtypes were also found to differ on how they evaluated and responded to a traffic safety campaign.
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