Intolerance of COVID-19-Related Uncertainty and Negative Emotions among Chinese Adolescents: A Moderated Mediation Model of Risk Perception, Social Exclusion and Perceived Efficacy.

Qi Li,Bibing Dai,Ronglei Luo,Xiaoya Zhang,Xun Liu,Guangteng Meng

doi:10.3390/ijerph18062864

Abstract

The uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated negative emotions, especially among adolescents, who feel unable to tolerate the uncertainty of the epidemic. However, the mechanism by which the intolerance of COVID-19-related uncertainty (COVID-19 IU) affects negative emotions in adolescents remains unclear. This study explored the underlying mechanism from COVID-19 IU to negative emotions using a moderated mediation model in adolescents. In total, 3037 teenagers completed a cross-sectional survey including measures of COVID-19 IU, risk perception, social exclusion, perceived efficacy, and negative emotions. The results showed that COVID-19 IU positively predicted negative emotions and that risk perception and social exclusion mediated this relationship. In addition, both the direct effect of COVID-19 IU on negative emotions and the mediating effect of risk perception on this relationship were moderated by perceived efficacy; in particular, COVID-19 IU had a greater impact on negative emotions among adolescents with lower levels of perceived efficacy. These findings suggest that COVID-19 IU is closely associated with negative emotions among adolescents and that effective measures should be taken to enable adolescents to improve their perceived efficacy and develop a reasonable perception of risk, help them eliminate the stigma of the disease, and strengthen their connections with society.

Highlights

Introduction iationsThe crisis facing the world in 2021 was the COVID-19 pandemic
COVID-19 Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) did not interact with perceived efficacy to predict social exclusion (B = −0.002, SE = 0.002, p = 0.23). These results showed that both the association between COVID-19 IU and risk perception and the association between COVID19 IU and negative emotions were moderated by perceived efficacy, while perceived efficacy did not moderate the association between COVID-19 IU and social exclusion
The results of this study indicate that COVID-19 IU is positively associated with negative emotions in adolescents

Summary

Introduction

The crisis facing the world in 2021 was the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the various measures taken by governments to contain disease spread, the world remained in a state of pandemic, and the numbers of confirmed cases and deaths were out of control. This could be attributed to limited understanding of the disease and the lack of effective vaccines and treatments. By 6 March 2021, there were more than 115 million confirmed cases and over. The extreme uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic is causing anxiety, depression and other mental health problems [2,3,4,5]. In addition to the threat of the pandemic, they are experiencing

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Conclusion