A Moderated Mediation Model of Self-Construal, Social Trust, and Compliance on Covid-19 Public Health Regulation: A Cross-country Analysis

To address the global Covid-19 pandemic, governments around the world require on the collective cooperation of their citizens to comply with public health regulation. Earlier studies examined the extent to which self-construal has an impact on individual compliance to law. However, existing literature has paid little significant attention to behavioural outcome of self-construal in the pandemic context across countries and cultures. The aim of this study was; 1) to determine whether interdependent self-construal predicts compliance of Covid-19 public health regulation, 2) to examine if the association was mediated by individual social trust, and 3) to test whether these associations were moderated by respondent's country of residence (US x Indonesia). General adult respondents from US (N=231) and Indonesia (N=440) were voluntary participated in a survey measuring their trust to the government, interdependent self-construal orientation and compliance toward Covid-19 public health regulation. While our moderated mediation model involving respondent’s country residence did not support the hypothesis, the mediation analysis demonstrated significant association between interdependent self-construal and compliance via social trust. Our additional simple moderation analysis on direct effect of interdependent self-construal and compliance showed significant findings. Further, theoretical and practical implications of these findings were discussed in the following paper.

Health(y) education: A critical analysis of the role of public health regulation in and on tertiary education in Aotearoa New Zealand

This article offers a critical analysis of the role of public health regulation on tertiary education in Aotearoa New Zealand and, specifically, the requirements and processes of Responsible Authorities under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act for the accreditation and monitoring of educational institutions and their curricula (degrees, courses of studies, or programmes). It identifies and discusses a number of issues concerned with the requirements of such accreditation and monitoring, including, administrative requirements and costs, structural requirements, and the implications for educational design. Concerns with the processes of these procedures, namely the lack of educational expertise on the part of the Responsible Authorities, and certain manifested power dynamics are also highlighted. Finally, the article draws conclusions for changing policy and practice.

Building bridges between public health and law

The nanny state has become a metaphor in debates about public health regulation, cautioning governments against taking action. The nanny state metaphor is being used to criticize health policies for restricting choice and autonomy and warn against undue paternalism. Nanny state accusations can function as powerful rhetorical weapons against interventions that are intended to benefit people.