Bronfman, N.Repetto, P.Cisternas, P.Castañeda, J.Cordón, P.2022-05-102022-05-102022-04International Journal of Public Health, Volume 6713, April 2022, Article number 16042901661-8564https://repositorio.unab.cl/xmlui/handle/ria/22490Indexación: Scopus.The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of government trust on young adults’ adoption of health behaviors to prevent infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Method: We tested the hypothesis that government trust would directly and indirectly (through worry/fear and subjective norms) influence the adoption of health-protective behaviors. A sample of 1,136 university students completed a web survey after Chile’s first wave of infections. Results: The results indicate that low government trust only indirectly (through subjective norms) influenced health-protective behaviors. Conversely, worry/fear was the primary motivating factor for adopting health-protective behaviors in young adults, followed by subjective norms. Conclusion: In scenarios where people perceive low government trust, emotions and social norms are the motivational factors with the most significant predictive power on the adoption of health-protective behaviors.enCOVID–19government trustprotective behaviorssubjective normsArtículoAttribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)10.3389/ijph.2022.1604290