Informational support, risk perception, anti-pandemic motivation and behavior: a longitudinal study in China

Abstract

Mobilizing the public to take anti-pandemic behavior (APB) by strengthening informational support has been recognized as an effective strategy to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it remains unclear how health-related informational support from different channels affects individual factors and, thus, the adoption of different types of APB as the pandemic situation changes. To resolve this issue, we build a multiple mediation model to investigate the associations among informational support from three different channels, two individual internal factors, and two kinds of APB. A three-stage longitudinal study administered to Chinese citizens from February to October 2020 revealed that informational support from media played the most critical role in facilitating individuals’ adoption of compliance APB, while informational support from family was the most significant predictor of the adoption of participation APB. Meanwhile, these effects were mediated by risk perception and anti-pandemic motivation, and weakened to varying degrees as the pandemic situation eased. It is recommended that authorities adjust the focus of publicity strategies in light of the changing situation, and make efforts to heighten the public’s risk perception and anti-pandemic motivation. This study contributes to deepening the understanding of the dynamic efficacy of informational support from different channels on individuals’ adoption of two heterogeneous APBs, and thus to the formulation of more scientific, and situation-based publicity strategies during a public health crisis.

The longitudinal relation between time perspective and preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of risk perception

“…The results are consistent with evidence from previous pandemics of influenza that found perceived disease severity to be positively related with adoption of preventive measures (Bish & Michie, 2010 ; Bults et al, 2011 ; de Zwart et al, 2010 ). Our findings confirm limited previous longitudinal studies showing positive associations between risk perception and engagement in recommended preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic (Fu et al, 2021 ; Qin et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Thus, using a six-month longitudinal design, this study contributes to the literature by exploring whether TPs are related to adoption of preventive behaviors against COVID-19. In addition, considering recent literature showing that risk perception is a key factor in adopting preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., Breakwell et al, 2021 ; Fu et al, 2021 ), we also investigated the potential mediating role of risk perception on the relation between TP and preventive behaviors to protect from COVID-19 infection.…”

“…Although there is growing evidence for the link between COVID-19 risk perception and preventive behaviors, only few recent studies provided longitudinal evidence for this relation. There are some findings indicating that COVID-19 risk perception, perceived severity of the disease and perception of own vulnerability or likelihood to be infected, are longitudinally positively related with the engagement in preventive behaviors across different phases of the pandemic (Fu et al, 2021 ; Qin et al, 2021 ).…”

Analyzing Risk Communication, Trust, Risk Perception, Negative Emotions, and Behavioral Coping Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic in China Using a Structural Equation Model

“…Social media exposure to COVID-19 information influences the adoption of preventive attitudes and behaviors by shaping RP ( 15 ). Informational support from the media plays one of the most critical role in facilitating individuals' adoption of compliance with anti-pandemic behavior ( 16 ). While there has been increasing attention to the role of social media during Covid-19 crisis, little is known about how social media can affect RP and public behaviors.…”

Perceived risk of using online transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A MIMIC-model approach

“…The previous research had developed various risk perceptions of COVID-19 outbreak scale, namely The COVID-19 Perceived Risk Scale (Yıldırım & Güler, 2020), Questionnaire of Risk perception toward COVID-19 (Shahnazi, et al, 2020), COVID-19 Risk Perception Scale (Lu, et al, 2021;Padmanabhanunni & Pretorius, 2021), and Fear of COVID-19 Scale (Ahorsu, et al, 2020;Green, et al, 2021). Other than that there are some studies (Birhanu, et al, 2021;Fu, et al, 2021;Kader, et al, 2021) that adapted the risk perception of the previous outbreak to the COVID-19 context.…”