A Study of Fear and Anxiety of COVID-19 in Relation to Purchasing Involvement of University Students in Thailand

Abstract

The objective of this study was to discover the correlation of fear and anxiety of COVID-19 as antecedents of purchasing involvement of students in a Thai context. This quantitative study collected data online from 350 students from two universities located in an urban area of Bangkok as the sample. To measure fear of COVID-19, the Scale developed by Ahorsu, Lin, Imani, Saffari, Griffiths and Pakpour, was used. The Coronavirus Anxiety Scale developed by Lee, S. A. was used to measure COVID-19 anxiety. To measure purchasing involvement, the Purchasing Involvement Scale developed by Karaatli was used. The Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient and t-test for data analysis found that all five hypotheses were supported by the analysis results, indicating a moderate correlation between fear and anxiety of COVID-19 and purchasing involvement. Moderate correlation between  genders were found in fear and anxiety of COVID-19, and purchasing involvement. The findings could provide information to marketers and advertisers regarding purchasing involvement to promote and sell products especially during future crisis, albeit needs to be extended to other contexts.