The generational differences in the perceptions of the pandemic: were emerging adults less alert and more trusting?

Abstract

While the COVID-19 pandemic affected everyone, not everyone‘s experience of the pandemic is the same. Young people, for example, were not considered a risk group, but from a public health perspective, a successful mitigation of the outbreak calls for coordinated effort across generations. The aim of the study was to explore the »generational view« of the pandemic in Serbia by observing age-group differences in perceptions of the pandemic (alertness), adherence to protective measures, means of gathering information and perceived trust and credibility using serial cross-sectional data collected in the first five months of the outbreak. The sample included 8.911 participants (79% female, Mage = 40.0), divided into four age groups (emerging adulthood, early, middle, and late adulthood). Overall, emerging adults reported lower alertness (but not lower than adults over 60; F(3) = 5.30, p = .001, η2 < .01), hypothetical (F(3) = 10.87, p < .001, η2 = .01), and actual self-protective behaviour than their seniors (F(3) = 25.04, p < .001, η2 = .01), but perceived the information they received as more credible (F(3) = 29.75, p < .001, η2 = .01). However, when looking into temporal stability of the differences, they were significant (though small in absolute terms) in the acute psychological phase of the pandemic (first two weeks), but evened out during adaptation and relaxation phases. In terms of trust, the estimates of emerging adults regarding the healthcare system and institutions started to grow significantly during the relaxation phase, suggesting they based their judgements on their performance in dealing with the epidemic (their trust increased when easing of measures was announced). As perceived trust and credibility of information contribute to people‘s adherence to protective measures, we discuss the public health implications of our findings, which align with fuzzy trace theory’s notion regarding risk perceptions of young adults.