McWhirter, EllenGarcia, Yahaira2024-08-072024-08-072024-08-07https://hdl.handle.net/1794/29710The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on communities around the globe, with older adults, members of minoritized racial and ethnic groups, and residents of urban areas being more susceptible to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, hospitalization, and death (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). However, the pandemic presented threats beyond adverse physical outcomes of the disease; efforts to mitigate the pandemic such as closure of workplaces also threatened the ability to meet basic needs, such as healthcare, housing, food security, and transportation for people across different ages. Using existing participant data from the Oregon Saludable: Juntos Podemos project, this study investigated whether COVID-19 risk and protective behaviors vary as a function of age, race/ethnicity, language, and rural/urban residence. Understanding these relationships is important to the development of targeted strategies that decrease health disparities and increase health promoting behaviors. This study also investigated whether challenges in meeting basic needs moderated relationships between specific risk factors (age, race/ethnicity, language, and rural/urban residence) and COVID-19 risk and protective behaviors. Linear mixed effects regressions were used to examine associations between the sociocultural factors (age, ethnicity, language, urban/rural residence) and self-reported COVID-19 protective and risk behaviors. Findings indicate that older adults self-reported engaging in fewer risky behaviors than younger adults, whereas both Latinx and Spanish speaking individuals reported engaging in fewer risky behaviors and engaging in more protective behaviors than their respective counterparts. COVID-19 waves were also significant predictors of engagement in risk and protective behaviors. Specifically, individuals engaged in both fewer risky and fewer protective behaviors in subsequent COVID-19 waves (i.e., Delta, Omicron, and Omicron BVAR) in comparison to individuals who were surveyed during the Alpha Wave. Lastly, basic needs moderated the relationship between BIPOC individuals and individuals surveyed during the Omicron Bivalent Wave, and their engagement in both risky behaviors and protective behaviors for the former, and protective behaviors for the latter. Implications for future research, policy, and practice are presented.en-USAll Rights Reserved.Basic NeedsCOVID-19Protective BehaviorsRisk BehaviorsElectronic Thesis or Dissertation