Assessment of Trust and Satisfaction With Governmental Measures During Health Crises

Abstract: Adults’ attitudes toward governmental public health measures are critical to assess because they relate to people’s compliance with public health measures and policies. A psychometrically sound measure for assessing trust in governmental public health measures and satisfaction with information politics in German is still missing. Based on theoretical approaches, we developed a measure to assess this trust (four items) and satisfaction (four items). We tested it longitudinally (Sample 1, n = 1,038 adults at T1 and T2, M Age = 43.56, representative for the German population) and cross-sectionally (Sample 2, n = 1,346 adults, M Age = 23.03). Results from both samples suggest initial evidence for high degrees of reliability and validity in Germany. Longitudinal results suggested initial evidence for high degrees of retest reliability, structural validity, and strict measurement invariance over time. Thus, this brief measure can be utilized for future opinion polls, political surveys, or public health-related policy decisions.