Background: Epidemics are associated with increased burden of psychological distress. However, the role of boredom on mental health during epidemic periods has seldom been explored. Objective: This study attempted to examine the effect of state boredom on psychological outcomes, and the role of media use and meaning in life among the indirectly exposed Chinese adults in the initial phase of the COVID-19 outbreak. Method: An online survey was administered to 917 Chinese adults on 28 January 2020 (1 week after the official declaration of person-to-person transmission of the coronavirus). Selfreport questionnaires were used to assess state boredom, anxiety, depression, stress, media use and meaning in life. Moderated mediation analysis was conducted. Results: Our results indicated that the effect of state boredom on anxiety and stress, but not depression, were mediated by media use and that sense of meaning in life modified this association. Meaning in life served as a risk factor, rather than a protective factor for the negative psychological outcomes when people experienced boredom. The association between boredom and media use was significant for high but not low meaning in life individuals. Conclusion: These findings demonstrated that boredom and media use were associated with an increased burden or psychological distress in the sample. It is important to pay attention to the possible negative impact of boredom and media use during COVID-19, and find more ways to cope with boredom, especially those with high presence of meaning in life.

The COVID-19 outbreak put health threat to people globally, and self-quarantine was suggested by the Chinese government to contain the outbreak. In self-quarantine, media was the most important way to get information about the outbreak. However, the relationship between media involvement and death anxiety, and the underlying mechanism are poorly understood. We conducted an online survey of 917 participants to assess the media involvement and other potential factors (empathy, sympathy and affect) which might affect death anxiety. Correlation analysis and mediation models were conducted to examine the relationship between media involvement and death anxiety, and the possible mediating roles of empathy, sympathy, and affect. It was found that media involvement was positively associated with death anxiety. Empathy, sympathy, and negative affect played mediating roles between them. However, empathy and sympathy act differently in the association, as empathy could lead to the increase of negative affect, while sympathy did not.

Muchos estudios anteriores han discutido la influencia de factores extrínsecos (por ejemplo, hábitat) en el éxito académico de los niños de China occidental. El presente estudio se centró en cuatro factores no cognitivos, aspiración autopedagógicas, autoeficacia, motivación instrumentaly ansiedad, que puede afectar el logro de las matemáticas. El propósito de este estudio era investigar los mecanismos de cómo estos cuatro factores no cognitivos afectaron logro matemáticas. 5774 primaria los estudiantes del grado 4 º y 5 º en el oeste de China participaron en este estudio. Se construyó un modelo de mediación encadenado moderado. Los resultados mostraron que autopedagógicas aspiración positiva podía predecir logro matemáticas. Sin embargo, la ansiedad y motivación instrumental forman encadenado mediación entre autopedagógicas logro de aspiración y de las matemáticas y el logro de matemáticas negativamente prevista. Además, la autoeficacia desempeñó un papel moderado en la relación entre la aspiración de la autopedagógicas y la ansiedad. Many previous studies have discussed the influence of extrinsic factors (e.g. living environment) on academic achievement of children from western China. The present study focused on four non-cognitive factors, self-educational aspiration, self-efficacy, instrumental motivation, and anxiety, which could affect mathematics achievement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanisms how these four non-cognitive factors affected mathematics achievement. 5774 primary school students from 4th and 5th grade in western China participated in this study. A moderated chained mediation model was constructed. The results showed that self-educational aspiration could positively predict mathematics achievement. However, instrumental motivation and anxiety formed chained mediation between self-educational aspiration and mathematics achievement, and negatively predicted mathematics achievement. Besides, self-efficacy played a moderated role in the relationship between self-educational aspiration and anxiety.

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread rapidly in China in beginning of 2020. Self-quarantine was suggested by Chinese government to block the spread of the COVID-19. During the self-quarantine, the media played an indispensable role in acquisition of information about the disease. And it could also impact on people's mental health. Therefore, it is necessary to study the psychological outcome resulted from media use during the outbreak of COVID-19. The data in this article could help researchers to explore the mechanism between media use and mental health, and to have a deeper comprehension of the impact of media use on mental health during a public health emergency. The dataset provided in this article included 917 participants recruited from different provinces all over China. Among the participants, there were 304 males and 613 females, with an average age of 28.6 and a standard deviation of 9.5. They took Media Use Questionnaire (MUQ), Empathy-Sympathy Questionnaire (ESQ), Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), Death Anxiety Questionnaire (DAQ), Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), State boredom Questionnaire (SBQ), and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) to assess their media use and mental health during the outbreak of COVID-19. All these instruments for data collection were Chinese versions. In addition, a .csv file consists of major variables we used are included as a supplementary material. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical regression had been conducted with these data. For a discussion of the findings based on the dataset please see the article: Media use and acute psychological outcomes during COVID-19 outbreak in China [1] and Psychological distress and state boredom during the COVID-19 outbreak in China: the role of meaning in life and media use [2] .

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