Stay at home behavior during COVID-19: The role of person-home relationships

Numerous studies investigated the adherence to health behaviors during COVID-19; however, the majority of approaches considered individual factors, while neglecting the importance of people’s relationship with their home. The purpose of this contribution is to integrate this aspect into a behavioral model to understand stay at home behavior during COVID-19 lockdowns. More specifically, this study combines a traditional approach employing variables from the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and risk perception with Home place attachment and Past stay at home experience to explain people’s decisions to stay at home during the COVID-19 lockdown. Data collection was conducted online during the first Italian lockdown with 794 valid answers. A structural equation model found that the predicted model has a good fit, and all variables are found to significantly predict Stay at home behavior, except for Descriptive norms and Risk perception. Place attachment and Past stay at home experience are found to positively predict Stay at home intention, through Attitude and Perceived behavioral control, respectively. Contrary to the hypotheses, Risk perception is not found to be significant, Findings point to the importance of considering the person-home relationship in adherence to stay at home behavior. Results are discussed for their implication for behavioral coping during future pandemics as well as for their relevance in daily life after the pandemic.