How college students help family members develop social ethics: An example from (COVID)-19 pandemic control

Abstract

In this study our focus was on revealing the functional mechanism of college students' sense of responsibility in relation to COVID-19 prevention and control in the family. We conducted a survey with 1,056 students in five provinces in China. Results of structural equation modeling showed that students' sense of responsibility was significantly and positively correlated with their promotive voice, family cognitive cohesion, and pandemic prevention behavior at home. Sense of responsibility directly influenced their pandemic prevention behavior at home and indirectly affected this behavior through the mediating effects of promotive voice and family cognitive cohesion. There was also a chain mediation effect revealing the internal mechanism of students' sense of responsibility on the formation of family members' social morality and behavior, which is of significance in enriching understanding of social morality formation and improving the practice of ideological and political education in tertiary institutions.