Abstract:

The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the COVID-19 fear levels, COVID-19 infectability perceptions, and intention to get vaccinated of university undergraduate students during the period when new variations of the COVID-19 virus are seen in Turkey. Along with, is to determine the mediating role of COVID-19 infectability perception with the effect of fear of COVID-19 on the intention to get vaccinated. In the research, it was used an online-based cross-sectional research design on university students. The universe of the research consisted of all undergraduate students of a state university. It was preferred the convenience sampling method in the study. The researchers collected data from 557 students using the online questionnaire technique. Researchers used IBM SPSS Statistic Base 23 V and AMOS package programs in the analysis of the data. The study's findings revealed that most university students had high COVID-19 fear levels and COVID-19 infectability perceptions, and their intention to be vaccinated increased positively. In addition, the empirical result of the study revealed that as the fear level of COVID-19 increased, the purpose to be immunized for COVID-19 increased positively. In addition, it was determined that the perception of COVID-19 infectability had a significant indirect effect and fully mediated the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and intention to get vaccinated. This research revealed that increasing COVID-19 fear level positively increases the intention to get vaccinated through the perception of high COVID-19 infectability. Therefore, increased COVID-19 fear level and high COVID-19 infectability perception were positively correlated with increased intention to get vaccinated.

Keywords: