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

• Published in: Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) Vol. 42; no. 10; pp. 7852 - 7866
• Main Authors: Fu, Lipeng, Wang, Xueqing, Deng, Shuyi, Zhang, Qin, Liu, Yunfeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.04.2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; China; Communication in medicine; Control; Epidemics; Health aspects; Health behavior; Longitudinal studies; Management; Methods; Pandemics; Psychological aspects; Psychological research; Psychology; Public health; Risk perception; Social Sciences; China; COVID-19; Risk perception; Informational support; Safety motivation; Protective behavior
• ISSN: 1046-1310; 1936-4733
• DOI: 10.1007/s12144-021-02071-1

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.