Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH
Volume 17, Issue 13, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17134820
Keywords
risk factor; resilience; cognitive appraisal; self-control; COVID-19; public health concerns
Funding
- FEHD's Internationalization & Exchange Research Scheme of the Education University of Hong Kong
- MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences [17YJCZH040]
- 13th Five-Year Plan of Philosophy and Social Science of Guangzhou [2020GZYB92]
- Guangzhou University [YK2020025]
- Guangdong University of Foreign Studies [299-X5216193, 299-GK19G062]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused thousands of deaths in China. Prior research suggests that individuals' perceived severity of COVID-19 is related to a range of negative emotional and behavioral reactions among the Chinese public. However, scant research has examined the underlying mechanisms. Drawing upon the risk-resilience model, this study proposes that self-control, as a resilient factor, would potentially moderate the association between perceived severity of COVID-19 and mental health problems. Data from a national survey was used to examine this idea. Participants were 4607 citizens from 31 regions in China (M-age= 23.71 years, 72.5% female) who completed a national survey at the beginning of February 2020. Results of hierarchical regression showed that after controlling for a number of demographic variables, perceived severity of COVID-19 and self-control were positively and negatively related to mental health problems, respectively. More importantly, self-control moderated the perceived severity of COVID-19-mental health problems association, with this link attenuating as the levels of self-control increased. These findings suggest that compared to those with high self-control, individuals with low self-control are more vulnerable and are more in need of psychological aids to maintain mental health in the encounter of the COVID-19 outbreak. Practically, enhancing individuals' self-control ability might be a promising way to improve individuals' mental health during the early period of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available