Abstract
Objective: Given that positive psychological capital motivates citizens to actively participate in social affairs, this study aims to provide insight into food safety risk management in China by empirically determining which individual characteristics are associated with positive psychological capital for actively participating in social co-governance.Methods: A questionnaire-based survey was undertaken between December 5 and 10, 2020. The study participants were residents of Wuxi in China over the age of 18 years. A validated and pretested questionnaires was used to elicit responses with the participants. Student's t-test and one-way analysis of variance were performed to determine which individual characteristics are significantly correlated with the psychological capital of citizens who participate in co-governance. Post-hoc multiple comparisons were performed for each individual characteristic with a significant correlation to determine which categories of these characteristics yielded the significant differences. Study data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 24.0.Results: A total of 752 completed responses were received. Most respondents were females (52.39%), aged 26–45 (66.09%), married (70.48%), company employees (44.28%), and in good health (89.76%). Most had a household size of 3 (55.98%), a bachelor's degree (40.96%), a personal annual income of more than 100,000 yuan (26.46%), and no children aged under 18 (50.27%) or pregnant women (93.22%) in their households. Data analysis indicated that education, income, and health status significantly associate with the psychological capital of citizens to participate in co-governance. Citizens with high education, high income, and good health status have higher psychological capital to participate in co-governance.Conclusion: The present study suggested citizens are likely to actively participate in food safety social co-governance only when they have at least one of the following three characteristics: (1) higher than average income in their city of residence; (2) a bachelor's degree or higher education; or (3) good health. Therefore, motivating citizens to participate in co-governance is a long-term process in China. The fundamental strategy is to increase the income of citizens, especially among low-income groups, promote education to improve the food safety literacy of the public, and improve sanitation and public health.
Highlights
Food safety is a major global public issue [1]
Drawing on existing literature, this study develops a 16-item scale to measure the PsyCap of citizens who participate in food safety social co-governance based on the four dimensions that are generally believed to constitute PsyCap, namely self-efficacy, resilience, optimism, and hope [90]
The effects of citizen characteristics on the four dimensions are analyzed using Student’s t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and posthoc multiple comparisons to examine the relationship between the characteristics and PsyCap of citizens who participate in food safety social co-governance
Summary
Food safety is a major global public issue [1]. Numerous studies have shown that it is difficult to avoid government or market failure, either alone or combined, by relying solely on the government or market, or on both government and market together to manage food safety risks. The phenomenon of social co-governance first emerged in the 1960s and 1970s and since developed as a new governance model in Western countries. It has become the most basic model for managing food safety risks in Western countries [5, 6]. China has different national conditions from Western countries, the Chinese government has begun to reform the country’s governance model over the last two decades, especially since 2012 [7], and the revised Food Safety Law has established social cogovernance as the basic principle for managing food safety risks. The academic community generally agrees that food safety social co-governance means that stakeholders, including the government, enterprises (market), social organizations, and citizens, jointly formulate or participate in the formulation of laws, regulations, and rules, coordinate and cooperate with each other, and fulfill their respective responsibilities in accordance with the law to jointly ensure food safety with low governance costs in an open, transparent, and flexible manner [8,9,10]
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