Browsing by Author "Finley, Kari"

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The role of social capital in traffic safety citizenship
(2018) Finley, Kari; Otto, Jay; Ward, Nicholas
Traffic safety citizenship is an emerging approach to reduce serious injuries and fatalities on our roadways. The goals of this study were to develop a model to identify beliefs and values associated with intention to engage in traffic safety citizenship behaviors with strangers and to explore the role of an individual's perception of social capital in this model. This study focused on two safety citizenship behaviors: intervening as a driver to ask a passenger to wear a seat belt and intervening as a passenger to ask a driver to stop reading or typing on a cell phone while driving. Results showed that one-third of the respondents had been in a situation to intervene with a stranger in the past twelve months. Of those in a situation to intervene, most reported they did not always intervene. They were more likely to intervene about a seat belt than about texting. Intention to intervene was significantly correlated with intervening behavior, and linear regression models revealed that perceived control was the dominant component most predictive of intention to intervene. Social capital did not directly predict intention to intervene but was predictive of the perceived injunctive norm and the perceived descriptive norm, which were both predictive of intention. Results of the study provide a better understanding of the beliefs and values associated with the intention to engage in traffic safety citizenship behaviors and the role of social capital to facilitate engagement in these behaviors. Recommendations to increase safety citizenship behaviors are provided.
Role of Trusted Sources and Behavioral Beliefs in Promoting Mitigation Behaviors: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic (Preprint)
(JMIR Publications Inc., 2022-02) Hanson, Bridget L.; Finley, Kari; Otto, Jay; Ward, Nicholas J.
Background: During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and in preparation for future public health crises, it is important to understand the relationship between individuals’ health beliefs, including their trust in various sources of health information, and their engagement in mitigation behaviors. Objective: We sought to identify relationships between trust in various sources of health information and the behavioral beliefs related to vaccination and mask wearing as well as to understand how behavioral beliefs related to vaccination differ by willingness to be vaccinated. Methods: We conducted an online survey of 1034 adults in the United States and assessed their trust in federal, local, and media sources of health information; their beliefs about vaccination; and their masking intention and vaccination willingness. Results: Using regression, masking intention was predicted by trust in the World Health Organization (P<.05) and participants’ state public health offices (P<.05), while vaccine willingness was predicted by trust in participants’ own health care providers (P<.05) and pharmaceutical companies (P<.001). Compared to individuals with low willingness to be vaccinated, individuals with high willingness indicated greater endorsement of beliefs that vaccines would support a return to normalcy, are safe, and are a social responsibility (P<.001 for all). Conclusions: Results can be used to inform ongoing public health messaging campaigns to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and increase readiness for the next pandemic. Additionally, results support the need to bolster the public’s trust in health care agencies as well as to enhance trust and respect in health care providers to increase people’s adoption of mitigation behaviors.