Relationship Between Risk Perception, Social Support, and Mental Health Among General Chinese Population During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background The Coronavirus Diseases (COVID-19) pandemic is a global public health challenge and provides an opportunity to investigate the unclear relationship between risk perception, social support, and mental health. This study aims to examine the association between risk perception and mental health while taking social support as a moderator. Methods An online cross-sectional study recruiting 2993 participants was conducted in China, from 1st to 10th, February 2020. The relationship between risk perception, social support, and mental health was examined using multivariate linear regression analyses. Results This study indicated that risk perception was associated with a higher level of mental health symptoms. The subscale “Perceived uncontrollability” seemed to present a stronger correlation with depressive symptoms (Beta=0.306) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (Beta=0.318) than the subscale “Perceived Severity” did. Moreover, social support moderated the relationship between perceived uncontrollability and mental health symptoms. Conclusion In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to design mental health strategies and programs from a risk perception perspective (more mental health strategies should be delivered to build reasonable risk perception), while social support from family and friends may be protective to against depressive symptoms and PTSD symptoms. There is a demand for mental health intervention from a risk perception perspective.

Security Motives and Negative Affective Experiences During the Early Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Also, spending more time socially isolated and receiving less support from family and friends was associated with poorer psychological health (Szkody et al, 2020). Related to our argument, individuals who perceived more risk and uncertainty from the pandemic also reported more depressive symptomatology, particularly if they received less support from their friends and family (Liu et al, 2021). Given that social support buffers threat appraisals and negative affective experiences (e.g., Che et al, 2018;Gallagher & Vella-Brodrick, 2008;Lüscher et al, 2015), it was arguably a crucial resource to cope with the challenges caused by the pandemic.…”

The Association Between Risk Perception and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy for Children Among Reproductive Women in China: An Online Survey

“…Numerous factors are independently associated with parental vaccine decision-making, including risk perception (14,15,25), lifestyle, knowledge of vaccines (19), parental education (25,26), vaccines' country of origin (27), history of vaccination against influenza (16), and parental psychological distress (23). Risk perception is a subjective construction process comprising multiple dimensions, including judgments on the severity and controllability of risks (28). People may develop risk perception for potential or actual consequences and the controllability of the COVID-19 pandemic based on cognitive appraisal theory (29,30).…”

Factors related to perceived stress during the COVID-19 epidemic context among the general population in China: A cross-sectional nationwide study

“…Investigating specific stressors during an infectious disease emergency can be instrumental in the success of targeted efforts aimed at providing better mental health services and the optimization of disease containment measures to mitigate mental health consequences. Several studies have investigated factors related to mental health among the general population in China and have identified a myriad of risk factors related to the epidemic itself (e.g., contact history of COVID-19, risk perception, exposure to COVID-19 at work) ( Du et al., 2020 ; Wang et al., 2020c ; Sun et al., 2021 ; Wang et al., 2021a ) as well as psychosocial factors (e.g., resilience, coping style, social support) ( Hou et al., 2021 ; Liu et al., 2021 ; Yan et al., 2021 ). In addition to environmental event stressors caused by the epidemic, several social event stressors were attributable to epidemic containment measures ( Chu et al., 2020 ; Shaw, 2021 ; Shi et al., 2021 ; Wang, 2021b ), such as economic challenges caused by business closures ( Li et al., 2020 ; Zhou & Guo, 2021 ), interpersonal and social disturbances when practicing social distancing ( Zhao et al., 2020 ; Zhu et al., 2021 ), and heightened information inequalities due to inadequate literacy ( Chu et al., 2020 ).…”