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Assessing adolescents' critical health literacy: How is trust in government leadership associated with knowledge of COVID-19?

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Mathews, Channing J  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4716-2299
McGuire, Luke 
Joy, Angelina 
Law, Fidelia 
Winterbottom, Mark 

Abstract

This study explored relations between COVID-19 news source, trust in COVID-19 information source, and COVID-19 health literacy in 194 STEM-oriented adolescents and young adults from the US and the UK. Analyses suggest that adolescents use both traditional news (e.g., TV or newspapers) and social media news to acquire information about COVID-19 and have average levels of COVID-19 health literacy. Hierarchical linear regression analyses suggest that the association between traditional news media and COVID-19 health literacy depends on participants' level of trust in their government leader. For youth in both the US and the UK who used traditional media for information about COVID-19 and who have higher trust in their respective government leader (i.e., former US President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson) had lower COVID-19 health literacy. Results highlight how youth are learning about the pandemic and the importance of not only considering their information source, but also their levels of trust in their government leaders.

Description

Keywords

Adolescent, Adolescent Behavior, COVID-19, Female, Government, Health Behavior, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Health Literacy, Humans, Information Seeking Behavior, Leadership, Male, SARS-CoV-2, Social Media, Surveys and Questionnaires, Trust, United States

Journal Title

PLoS One

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1932-6203
1932-6203

Volume Title

16

Publisher

Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Sponsorship
U.S. National Science Foundation (DRL-1831593)
Wellcome Trust (206259/Z/17/Z)
Economic and Social Research Council (206259/Z/17/Z)