The Prevention Behaviors and Impact Mechanisms Among Different Chinese Social Classes at the Early Stage of COVID-19 Pandemic

Xiaoxin Li; Shen-Long Yang; Jing Li; Ting-Ting Rao; Chuangang Shen; Sanman Hu; Yongyu Guo

doi:10.2147/PRBM.S345380

The Prevention Behaviors and Impact Mechanisms Among Different Chinese Social Classes at the Early Stage of COVID-19 Pandemic

Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2022 Mar 20:15:711-723. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S345380. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Xiaoxin Li¹, Shen-Long Yang², Jing Li³, Ting-Ting Rao², Chuangang Shen⁴, Sanman Hu⁴, Yongyu Guo⁵

Affiliations

¹ Center of Mental Health Education, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, 362021, People's Republic of China.
² School of Humanities and Social Science, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, People's Republic of China.
³ School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Key Laboratory of Cyberpsychology and Behavior, Ministry of Education, and Hubei Human Development and Mental Health Key Laboratory, Wuhan, 430079, People's Republic of China.
⁴ College of Business Administration, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, 362021, People's Republic of China.
⁵ School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210097, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Background: Whether the pandemic can be effectively prevented and controlled depends on the entire population's adherence to recommendations and preventive behaviors. The present study aimed to investigate the social class differences and internal mechanisms of prevention behaviors in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We conducted an online cross-sectional survey among the general Chinese population at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey website's subscribers could access the questionnaire through the Tencent online platform, and a total of 1948 participants voluntarily completed it. Most of the participants were female (n = 1257, 64.528%), between the ages of 18-29 (n = 999, 51.284%), university graduates (n = 1015, 52.105%), and had an annual family income below 100,000 yuan (n = 1119, 57.444%). The differences in COVID-19 prevention behaviors among different social classes, the mediating role of infectious threat perception and the moderating role of perceived epidemic transparency were examined.

Results: 1) There were significant differences in prevention behaviors among different social classes. 2) The level of infectious threat perception played a mediating role in the relationship between social class and prevention behavior. When the individuals were from a lower social class, the level of threat perception and the level of COVID-19 prevention behaviors were also lower. 3) Perceived epidemic transparency played a moderating role in the relationship between social class and COVID-19 prevention behavior. It also played a moderating role in the relationship between social class and infectious threat perception.

Conclusion: In the implementation of epidemic prevention and control measures, different social classes should be targeted and guided differently. In particular, lower-class individuals can be guided by improving the perceptions of epidemic transparency and infectious threat.

Keywords: COVID-19 prevention behaviors; infectious threat perception; perceived epidemic transparency; social class.

Grants and funding

This research has been financially supported by Huaqiao University’s Academic Project Supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant number 16SKGC-QG15), Fujian Province Philosophy and Social Science Program of China (grant number FJ2020B067), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 71971120 & 72001171) and Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (grant number 18YJC190029). The funder had no role in the design of the study; the data collection and analysis; or the writing of the report.