Perceptual and Behavioral Response to COVID-19 Pandemic among Sri Lankan Undergraduates

COVID-19 has emerged as the most impactful pandemic after the Spanish flu. As communities adjust to a life with COVID-19 it has become essential to employ different behavioral mechanisms of prevention to curtail community transmission. Perceptual factors such as risk perception and locus of control play a role in the level of stress experienced and the likelihood of employing behavioral methods for the prevention of the spread of the virus. The present cross sectional study utilized four questionnaires measuring COVID-19 related risk perception, COVID-19 related stress, locus of control and adherence to safety measures. The sample consisted of 371 undergraduate students representing all academic years in the Faculty of Arts in the University of Peradeniya,Sri Lanka. A significant relationship was found between COVID-19 risk perception and COVID-19 stress. Increase in internal locus of control was reflective of lower levels of risk perception and COVID-19 related stress. However adherence to safety measures did not have a significant association with COVID-19 risk perception, COVID-19 related stress or their level of internal locus of control. COVID-19 risk perception was also predictive of COVID-19 stress while increasing internal locus of control and adherence to safety measures were not. This suggests perception of risk to be the key predictive factor for the psychological wellbeing of undergraduate students in this study during the COVID-19 pandemic.