Southwestern College Students  Attitudes and Behaviors towards Face Mask wearing on Campus.

The emergence of respiratory viral infections has necessitated the use of face masks worldwide. Although several studies have examined the uses of the face and attested to its efficacy in preventing airborne diseases. In the United States, wearing face masks is a divisive and politicized topic. College students on campus have their own reservations on mask wearing and are influenced by a myriad of factors that determine compliance to mask mandate. The aim of this study is to examine the perception, attitudes, and behavior of college students toward facemask wearing on campus. To achieve that, we recruited 217 participants. 117 (53.9%) participants identified as females, 97 (44.7%) identified as males while the remaining three (1.4%) participants identified as non-binary, with an average age of 19.89. Participants were recruited using convenience sampling through the distribution of flyers both in class and online course pages or website. With an online survey, we measured participants’ attitude, behavior, perceived benefit, and perceived risk of wearing facemasks. We conducted, one-way ANOVA, correlation, and regression analysis. The result indicated that there is no relationship between perceived benefit and attitude towards wearing face masks among US college students. From the analysis, as perceived benefit increases, students' attitude also decreases moderately. This means that perceived benefits do not necessarily correlate with the attitude of students in wearing face masks. Therefore, it might be due to other factors such as the mandatory rule instituted for all to wear face mask on campus. Additionally, there is a positive low relationship between students’ perceived risk of face mask wearing and their face mask wearing behavior, the relationship, therefore, is not significant. This suggests that college students who are at a high perceived risk of COVID-19 are less likely to engage in high face mask wearing behavior. Implications and future directions are discussed.