A proposal for an instrument to assess the willingness to change regarding covid-19

Abstract

The objective was to design and validate an instrument to assess the willingness to change behavior during the covid-19 pandemic in Mexican population. The sample was made up of 214 participants (73.3% [n = 157] women and 26.6% [n = 57] men). The mean age of the participants was 32.01 (SD = 13.48). An adaptation of the URICA (University of Rhode Island Change Assessment) scale was applied, whose reliability was evaluated with Cronbach's alpha coefficient and the internal structure of the dimensions with an exploratory factor analysis. The final scale resulted in 17 items with moderately acceptable reliability: precontemplation α = 0.501, explaining 19.27% of the total variance; contemplation α = 0.586, explaining 34.94%; action α = 0.658, explaining 46.17%; and maintenance α = 0.672, explaining 30.95%. It was demonstrated that the proposal is reliable, with a structure that evaluates the willingness to change behavior in the covid-19 pandemic in Mexican population.