Abstract:
Coronavirus 2019 is a communicable disease that requires surveillance in all age groups including early adolescents. These adolescents may have behaviors that pose a risk of infection and spreading the infection to others. This predictive correlational research aimed to examine predicting factors of preventing COVID-19 among early adolescents. A simple random sampling was used to recruit 356 students from grades 79, aged 1315 years studying in an extra-large school in Amphoe Mueang, Suphanburi Province. Data were collected from August to September 2022. The research instruments consisted of the demographic record form, the knowledge of COVID-19 questionnaire, the attitudes towards COVID-19 questionnaire, the social support questionnaire, the perceived self-efficacy for preventing COVID-19 questionnaire, and the preventive behaviors for COVID-19 questionnaire. These questionnaires yielded Cronbachs alpha of .77, .73, .91, .88, and .82, respectively. Descriptive statistics and stepwise multiple regression were employed for data analyses. The results showed that perceived self-efficacy for preventing COVID-19, social support, knowledge of COVID-19 and attitude towards COVID-19 could together predict preventive behaviors for COVID-19 in these adolescents for 31.0 % (R 2 = .310, p < .01). Perceived self-efficacy for preventing COVID19 was the best predictor (β = .340, p < .001), followed by social support (β = .272, p < .001), attitudes towards COVID-19 (β = .148, p< .01), and knowledge of COVID-19 (β = .134,p< .01), respectively. These findings suggested that nurses and health personnels should promote preventive behaviors for COVID-19 in early adolescents by emphasizing on the enhancement of their self-efficacy, social support and positive attitude towards preventing COVID-19 in order to prevent COVID-19.