Trait Mindful Nonreactivity and Nonjudgment Prospectively Predict of COVID-19 Health Protective Behaviors Across a Two-Month Interval in a USA Sample

OBrien, W. H.; Wang, S.; Varga, A. V.; Lim, C. X.; Xu, H.; Jarukasemthawee, S.; Pisitsungkagarn, K.; Suvanbenjakule, P.; Braden, A.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a growing recommendation for social distancing and using personal protective equipment (PPE) to help mitigate the virus transmission. Previous studies have shown promising relationships between perceived susceptibility to COVID-19, mindfulness-related variables, and COVID-19 health protective behaviors (social distancing and PPE use). In this longitudinal study, the variables were measured across a two-month interval during the earlier phase of the pandemic in June (Time 1) and August (Time 2), 2020. The results from 151 matched USA MTurk participants indicated that the perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 did not significantly predict the health protective behaviors. For mindfulness, nonreactivity was positively related to PPE use while nonjudgement was negatively related to PPE use. Accordingly, mindfulness promotion messages could be a way to increase the likelihood of people performing health protective behaviors to better constrain the COVID-19 outbreak.