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

Risk communication and the degree of trust are major factors that affect the public's behavioral coping strategies and play an important role in emergency risk management. However, the internal formation mechanism involved in the public's psychological behavior remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association among risk communication, trust, risk perception, negative emotions, and behavioral coping strategies during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and to identify and quantify the factors that influence public behavior. We launched an online survey through social media from April to July 2020 in China. Relevant data were elicited using a self-designed questionnaire that mainly examined respondent characteristics, risk communication, trust, risk perception, negative emotions, protective coping behavior, and excessive coping behavior in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 735 valid responses were obtained. A structural equation model was then used to explore relationship pathways among the components. The higher the degree of risk communication (β = -0.10, p < 0.05) and trust (β = -0.22, p < 0.001), the lower the public risk perception. Risk communication and trust had a direct effect on public behavioral coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The higher the level of risk communication (β = 0.14, p < 0.001) or trust (β = 0.48, p < 0.001), the more likely it was that this would encourage the public to adopt protective coping behaviors, while the public was less likely to engage in excessive coping behaviors as the degree of trust increased (β = -0.12, p < 0.01). Risk perception influenced by poor risk communication and trust generated negative emotions (β = 0.31, p < 0.001), and such negative emotions further positively influenced public behavioral coping strategies (whether protective [β = 0.09, p < 0.05] or excessive [β = 0.24, p < 0.001] behaviors). Risk communication, trust, risk perception, and negative emotions were significantly directly or indirectly related to public behavior. The findings provide useful information for emergency risk management and a theoretical basis for follow-up research on public coping behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gu J ，He R ，Wu X ，Tao J ，Ye W ，Wu C ... -  《Frontiers in Public Health》

Emotional and Cognitive Responses and Behavioral Coping of Chinese Medical Workers and General Population during the Pandemic of COVID-19.

Cai Z ，Zheng S ，Huang Y ，Zhang X ，Qiu Z ，Huang A ，Wu K ... -  《-》

Configurations for positive public behaviors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis.

The COVID-19 crisis poses considerable threats to public health, and exploring the key configuration conditions of the public behavior response is very important for emergency risk management. This study attempts to reveal differences in the conditional configuration and mechanism of public behavior based on the proposed framework, further make up for the deficiencies of existing research in explaining such issues as "How to promote the public's protective behavior or reduce the public's excessive behavior?" and finally provide new evidence and ideas for the government to improve the emergency management system. A total of 735 valid cases were obtained using an online survey and revealed the conditional configuration and mechanism of public behavior differences through a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis based on the proposed public behavioral framework. The results show that critical factors including risk communication, trust, risk perception, and negative emotions alone did not constitute a necessary condition for public protective or excessive behavior. The different configurations of influencing factors reveal the complexity of public behavioral risk management, and taking adequate measures to increase public trust and reduce negative public emotions constitute the core path of risk management to enhance positive public behavior. The configurations of various influencing factors reveal the complexity of public behavioral risk management. For behavioral risk management, governments should focus on adapting to multiple conditions according to their situations and, under the "overall perspective," formulate policies based on local conditions and further form a differentiated risk management path. Practically speaking, for the government, taking adequate measures to increase public trust and reduce negative public emotions is the core path of risk management to enhance positive public behavior.

Gu J ，Wu C ，Wu X ，He R ，Tao J ，Ye W ，Wu P ，Hao M ，Qiu W ... -  《-》

Exploring mechanisms affecting environmental risk coping behaviors: evidence from China.

Lan L ，Huang T ，Du Y ，Bao C ... -  《-》

Factors influencing protective behavior in the post-COVID-19 period in China: a cross-sectional study.

The study aimed to explore the factors influencing protective behavior and its association with factors during the post-COVID-19 period in China based on the risk perception emotion model and the protective action decision model (PADM). A total of 2830 valid questionnaires were collected as data for empirical analysis via network sampling in China. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to explore the relationships between the latent variables. SEM indicated that social emotion significantly positively affected protective behavior and intention. Protective behavioral intention had significant direct effects on protective behavior, and the direct effects were also the largest. Government trust did not have a significant effect on protective behavior but did have a significant indirect effect. Moreover, it was found that government trust had the greatest direct effect on social emotion. In addition, we found that excessive risk perception level may directly reduce people's intention and frequency of engaging in protective behavior, which was not conducive to positive, protective behavior. In the post-COVID-19 period, theoretical framework constructed in this study can be used to evaluate people's protective behavior. The government should strengthen its information-sharing and interaction with the public, enhance people's trust in the government, create a positive social mood, appropriately regulate people's risk perception, and, finally, maintain a positive attitude and intent of protection.

Shi G ，Zhong X ，He W ，Liu H ，Liu X ，Ma M ... -  《-》