Different countries have introduced different urgent policies to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. The compliance behavior of these anti-epidemic policies has always been an important concern to governments, and its effects need to be tested. In recent years, many scholars have paid attention to the mechanism and intervention of policy compliance behavior, which helps to explain the mechanism of anti-epidemic compliance behavior, and to improve the effectiveness of anti-epidemic policy. Therefore, considering the characters of youth groups in the context of the novel coronavirus, this study takes campus anti-epidemic compliance behavior as the research topic, based on 680 effective samples of college students in China, in order to examine the effectiveness of these policies using an investigation experiment. This study revealed that the ‘Nudge’ policy instrument was the most effective way to guide individuals’ behavior during the coronavirus outbreak, the ‘Sermon’ instrument was the least recognized, and the ‘Whip’ instrument (a traditional and classical policy instrument) had its normal effect on individuals’ behavior. Additionally, it found that high accessibility in policy implementation results in more significant policy behavior. By taking the effects of different policy behaviors into consideration, governments may produce better and more effective policy implementation and compliance during the anti-epidemic period.

The current study examined the relationships among work support, role stress, work-family conflict, and life satisfaction, with a sample of social workers in China’s Pearl River Delta (N = 1414). Using structure equation modelling, the study revealed that social workers’ life satisfaction reduced because of role conflict and work-family conflicts. Work-family conflict partially mediated the negative effects of role ambiguity and conflict on social workers’ life satisfaction. Work support from their director, manager, supervisor, and co-workers protectively reduced role stress and work-family conflict. The findings emphasize the significance of managing the interference between work and family for social workers’ well-being.

Summary The current study employed the Stress-Strain-Outcome model to understand the structural process of work support, work-family conflict (WFC), burnout, and job satisfaction among Chinese social workers. Using structural equation modeling, we employed a survey dataset of 1,414 social workers to estimate how burnout mediated the influences of work support and WFC on job satisfaction. Findings The results revealed that WFC directly promotes all three dimensions of burnout (i.e., depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and reduced personal accomplishment), and indirectly impairs job satisfaction through the partial mediation of emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment, net of role stresses or other demographic characteristics. Work support eased burnout and promoted job satisfaction. Applications We highlight that WFC is a noteworthy job stressor impairing social workers’ vocational health. Possible initiatives to promote social support and prevent such stressors are recommended.

Since early 2020, COVID-19 has been a major public security crisis that has had an enormous impact on the world. With the spread of the epidemic, rumors occur, some of which have even caused public panic. They have greatly affected the government’s efforts of epidemic prevention and thus urgently need to be evaluated. This study aimed to examine how to make flexible use of different policy tools to govern rumors based on their different characteristics. From the perspective of behavioral public policy, this study observes the effectiveness of various behavioral policy tools in rumor governance, hoping to explore the optimal solution of rumor governance from the perspective of micro public psychology. The survey experiment shows that individual behavior-related rumors (hereafter referred to as IBRs) are easier to be governed than epidemic progress-related rumors (hereafter referred to as EPRs) are, and that quick response is more effective than non-quick response. Through interaction analysis, it is known that in the governance of IBRs, nudge is more effective in rapid response, while in the context of non-quick response, boost outperforms nudge in rumor governance. A similar phenomenon can be seen in the scenario of EPR governance, despite a tinier difference in effectiveness compared with that of IBRs. The study enlightens us that rumor refutation requires not only people’s disbelief in and restraint on rumors, but also the implementation of science-based targeted policies. Based on the conclusion, this study puts forward suggestions on implementing targeted policies of rumor governance.

Since its implementation in July 2021, the “double reduction (the reduction of the excessive academic burden on primary and middle school students, and the over-heated off-campus tutoring)” policy (“the Policy”), which aims to foster a sound environment for extracurricular education, has attracted much social attention. At the preliminary stage where data and cases are insufficient, it is of theoretical and practical significance to evaluate extracurricular tuition and its effect mechanism before the Policy was implemented. This study analyzed the said question based on the data from the China Education Panel Survey between 2014 and 2015 (CEPS2014–2015) by virtue of propensity score matching (PSM) and the intermediate effect. The research found that: (1) extracurricular tuition (ET) is positively correlated with academic performance (AP); (2) high and low extracurricular tuition intensities (ETIs) show no difference in improving academic performance, and the group analysis shows that extracurricular tuition is influenced by the “optimal starting zone (OSZ)”; and (3) psychological resilience (PR) is an intermediate variable of extracurricular tuition, which acts as a “conversion valve”. Based on the above findings, the research raised the following suggestions. Firstly, we suggest to emphasize the promotion effect of after-class service on students’ academic performance and switch the functions of extracurricular tuition to after-sale service. Then, pay attention to the reverse effect of high extracurricular tuition intensity on students’ physical and psychological health and their academic performance. In practice, explore the effective “optimal starting zone” of extracurricular tuition for students. Lastly, cultivate students’ psychological resilience by shifting the core of education quality improvement from simple stacking of disciplinary knowledge to psychological health development.