Identifying Predictors of COVID-19 Anxiety Between Genders and Behavioral Outcomes

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant effect on an individual’s mental health and behavior worldwide. Specifically, young adults have indicated severe anxiety and fear about contracting COVID-19, which is known as COVID-19-related anxiety and can influence behavioral responses to the pandemic. Therefore, this study was conducted on 347 college students at a large public university in the southeastern United States to obtain deeper insight into the probable predictors of COVID-19-related anxiety, by gender, and their role in predicting anxious responses and compliance to CDC guidelines as outcome measures. The findings of this paper suggest that females experience greater anxiety sensitivity (AS), stress (DASS-Stress), body vigilance (BVS), and show more liberal views compared to males. Females were also more prone to experiencing higher COVID-19-related anxiety (CAS). Furthermore, as expected, COVID-19-related anxiety and compliance with CDC guidelines were positively correlated.