How social support predicts anxiety among university students during COVID‐19 control phase: Mediating roles of self‐esteem and resilience

Abstract

Public health emergency, such as COVID‐19 pandemic, generally has severe impacts on mental health in public. One of the often‐neglected negative consequences is that the control and prevention measures of COVID‐19 in the post‐epidemic can pose psychological threats to public mental health. This study aimed to seek the factors and mechanisms to alleviate this mental health threat based on a sample of university students in China. Accordingly, this study proposed an environmental‐individual interaction model examining the multiple mediating effects of self‐esteem and resilience in the association between social support and anxiety among university students during COVID‐19 control phase. A questionnaire containing multiple scales were administered on the sample of 2734 Chinese university students. Results indicated that social support negatively predicted anxiety through the serial mediating effects of self‐esteem and resilience sequentially. Our results highlight the impact of social support and the internal factors on relieving anxiety among university students in COVID‐19 control phase. Findings suggest that effective psychological intervention tools should be designed and offered to college students to reduce anxiety distress and improve mental health in the post‐epidemic era or the similar situations in the future.

The influence of resilience on stress reaction of college students during COVID-19: the mediating role of coping style and positive adaptive response

“…A network survey on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that coping style was one of the factors influencing psychological distress, that is, participants with negative coping style had higher level of psychological distress, such as being nervous, hopeless and anxiety (Wang et al, 2020 ). When individuals with a high level of resilience encounter emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic, they can actively mobilize strong inner strength and adopt adaptive and coping strategies to alleviate anxiety (Shu et al, 2021 ). Flexible selection and timing of strategy use are linked to better emotional outcomes (Kobylińska & Kusev, 2019 ).…”

COVID-19-Related Burnout and Intention of Fully Vaccinated Individuals to Get a Booster Dose: The Mediating Role of Resilience

“…Moreover, resilience partially mediates the relationship between COVID-19 stress and burnout in the general population [ 27 ]. Several other studies during the pandemic era suggest the positive impact of resilience as a mediator, since it has a buffering effect on the development of burnout, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety [ 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 ]. In addition, evidence suggests that resilience compensates for the negative influence of loneliness, social isolation, and stress on psychological well-being and life satisfaction in the context of a pandemic [ 64 , 65 , 66 ].…”

Guard Dog: A College Students Personal Touch Sanitizer

“…College students with low resistance become vulnerable. Infected groups [1] , during the COVID-19 pandemic, encouraging students to carry out protective disinfection work, providing a safe working and living environment can enhance students' confidence in fighting the epidemic and reduce the risk of illness [3,5] . In this article, we introduce Guard Dog , a concept that integrates sensors with a personal item disinfection device designed to sanitize items that students come into contact with while in the office.…”