RAPID: Social Factors Influencing Compliance with Quarantine and Distancing in the Prevention of COVID-19 Transmission

The uncertainty created by the spread of COVID-19 has resulted in a range of regulations designed to control the spread of infections. However, the economic and social consequences of such measures have differential impacts on vulnerable households already living in conditions of economic hardship and poor health. This research examines how social, economic, and health inequalities impact the capabilities of households to follow regulations that may be necessary to reduce the spread of infections. The project will explore how short-term household decision-making impacts long-term consequences for poverty, social marginality, and susceptibility to higher infection rates. The project contributes to understanding the social and culture factors that enable and inhibit compliance with regulations in the context of COVID-19; data and findings being disseminated to improve containment processes. This project also trains graduate students in collaborative work and in building a network of scholars across multiple sites that can strengthen research on responses to disaster management and implement research methods during periods of crises.

Through a multi-site study of household decision-making under conditions of extreme uncertainty created by the spread of COVID-19 and associated containment regulations, the research assesses the role socioeconomic factors play in achieving compliance with social distancing and quarantine requirements. It evaluates how intra-household inequalities, changes in medical infrastructure, fears of stigma and surveillance, confidence in social support, and social networks influence decisions. Eighty households across ten different sites with contrasting sub-populations and differing religious, ethnic, and racial composition will be selected for analysis. By taking the unit of analysis to be the household rather than the individual, the project will uniquely contribute to the understanding of household dynamics and the disproportionate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on household inequalities. The multi-site research design will be critical in investigating how models of containment which appear similar in theory might translate into very different modes of implementation in different social and political contexts.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.