Response Efficacy and Self-Efficacy Mediated the Relationship between Perceived Threat and Psychic Anxiety among College Students in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Wenpei Zhang,Yelianghui Zheng,Shankuo Xiong,Jinnan Wu

doi:10.3390/ijerph19052832

Wenpei Zhang, Yelianghui Zheng + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19052832

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Abstract

Applying Fear Appeals Theory and Social Learning Theory, this study aims to explore the impact of perceived threat on psychic anxiety among college students in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic and the mediating roles of response efficacy and self-efficacy. An empirical study was conducted using an online cross-sectional survey in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020. A random sampling method was applied to administer questionnaires to 646 Chinese college students. The results showed that: (1) the perceived threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, including perceived susceptibility and severity, was positively correlated with psychic anxiety; (2) self-efficacy mediated the effect of both perceived susceptibility and severity on psychic anxiety, while the response efficacy only mediated the effect of perceived susceptibility on psychic anxiety; and (3) response efficacy and self-efficacy played a serial mediating role on the relationship between perceived susceptibility and psychic anxiety. This study elucidates the relationship between perceived threat and psychic anxiety from the perspective of cognitive appraisal of threat, showing the role positive efficacy appraisal played in reducing psychic anxiety, which could be induced by the perceived threat of major public health emergencies such as COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights

In December 2019, unexplained pneumonia emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China and exhibited a high level of contagion [1]
The results showed a cumulative variance contribution of 80.69%, with the first factor accounting for 34.54% of the variance, which was lower than the threshold of 40% [36], indicating a low probability of common method bias in the dataset
The results of this study indicated that the perceived threat of COVID-19 among college students positively related to psychic anxiety; that is, college students with a higher perceived susceptibility and/or perceived severity of the threat exhibited higher levels of psychic anxiety, suggesting that perceived susceptibility and perceived severity of the threat are important factors in affecting psychic anxiety among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic [38,39]

Summary

Introduction

In December 2019, unexplained pneumonia emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China and exhibited a high level of contagion [1]. On 11 February 2020, the World Health Organization officially named this condition “Coronavirus disease 2019” (COVID-19) [2]. To this date, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in China exceeded. According to the Fear Appeals Theory (FAT), when faced with a significant threat, individuals conduct two sequential parts of cognitive appraisal concerning the threat itself (resulting in perceived threat) and the efficacy of the recommended threat response (resulting in efficacy appraisal) [9–11]. These two parts work together to influence the individual’s emotions, and adverse appraisal results can induce negative emotions (e.g., anxiety and fear) [12]. In the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, the high

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