Adoption Of Preventive Behavior Among Young Adults: Leveraging Digital Media During The Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine digital media consumption, socio-demographic variables and preventive behavior among Young adults in Malaysia between the age of 18 – 25.

Theoretical framework: The Uses and Gratification Theory is the best theory to explain why and how young adults leverage on digital media during the pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach: The study uses random sampling method was used to administer an online questionnaire at various educational institutions. The study ran various tests including cross tabulation, Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis to compare the results among the different digital media used.

Findings: The results discovered that young adults have completely shifted from official news sites to accessing news and information mainly from social media. In addition, there is a substantial difference between the genders, education level, and ethnicity with their digital media consumption. Results also showed that young adults exercised adequate preventive behavior contrary to some beliefs. TikTok users were seen to engage in the most amount of preventive activity, followed by WhatsApp users, Instagram users, YouTube users, and finally Facebook users.

Research, Practical & Social implications: The study suggested that health authorities could consider diversifying their use of digital media taking into consideration that there is a difference in the digital media consumption based on gender, education level and ethnicity.

Originality/value: The study provides insight into which medium did the Young Adult use and diversification of medium based on gender, education level and ethnicity.