The Relationship Between the Duration of Attention to Pandemic News and Depression During the Outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019: The Roles of Risk Perception and Future Time Perspective

Abstract

Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China, people have been exposed to a flood of media news related to the pandemic every day. Studies have shown that media news about public crisis events have a significant impact on individuals' depression. However, how and when the duration of attention to pandemic news predicts depression still remains an open question. This study established a moderated mediating model to investigate the relationship between the duration of attention to pandemic news and depression, the mediating effect of risk perception, and the moderating effect of future time perspective on the relationship. In early February 2020, 701 individuals from 29 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities across China were asked to self-report their duration of attention to pandemic news, level of depression, risk perception, and future time perspective during the COVID-19 outbreak. Results show that there is a significant positive correlation between the duration of attention to news on COVID-19 and depression; risk perception mediates the association between the duration of attention to pandemic news and depression; and future time perspective plays a moderating role between risk perception and depression. The findings of the present study provide theoretical implications and practically throw some light on alleviating the public's depression during pandemic periods. We highlight that the individual's hope for a better future, focusing on positive news, and time perspective balance during an epidemic disease are also beneficial to promoting positive emotion and reducing depression.

The Persistence of Slowed Time Experience During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Two Longitudinal Studies in France

“…In addition, the more traumatized people were, the more they focused on the past. This is consistent with earlier studies on traumatic situations and the temporal perspective (Zimbardo and Boyd, 1999;Holman et al, 2016) as well as with the most recent studies on the first lockdown (Sobol et al, 2020;Virna and Brahina, 2020;Wu et al, 2021). However, no sex effect on temporal perspective was observed in our French population, unlike in Sobol et al 's (2020) or Virnal and Brahina's (2020) studies.…”

“…In all cases, there is a loss of sense of the future, thus increasing the risk of depression ( Abramson et al, 1989 ; Beck and Weishaar, 1989 ). During the COVID-19 pandemic, the studies using the time perspective scale indicated that people were less future-oriented ( Sobol et al, 2020 ; Virna and Brahina, 2020 ; Wu et al, 2021 ), and the less future-oriented individuals tended to be more depressed ( Wu et al, 2021 ). The depressed individuals also tended to be less compliant with public health measures ( Sobol et al, 2020 ; Martinelli et al, 2021b ).…”

“Stay at Home” in Italy during the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Longitudinal Study on Individual Well-Being among Different Age Groups

“…Different studies have investigated the future positive perspective in relation to COVID-19-preventing behaviors [17,18]. Additionally, a study has highlighted the importance of investigating the future time perspective because of its moderating role between risk perception and depression [19].…”

Pandemic and Panic: Negative Emotion of Chinese College Students Caused by News During the Outbreak of COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The study from Wu's team found that if people read pandemic news for a long time, they were more possible to feel depression. What's more, risk perception is one of the medias in the relationship between them [6].…”