Risk Perception and Public Pandemic Fatigue: The Role of Perceived Stress and Preventive Coping

Bin Wang; Xiao Zhong; Haojie Fu; Haobo Zhang; Ruilin Hu; Jufen Li; Changxia Chen; Kexin Wang

doi:10.2147/RMHP.S425346

Risk Perception and Public Pandemic Fatigue: The Role of Perceived Stress and Preventive Coping

Risk Manag Healthc Policy. 2023 Sep 20:16:1941-1953. doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S425346. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Bin Wang^#¹, Xiao Zhong^#², Haojie Fu³, Haobo Zhang⁴, Ruilin Hu¹, Jufen Li¹, Changxia Chen¹, Kexin Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, Sichuan, People's Republic of China.
² School of Psychology, Beijing University of Sports, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
³ Shanghai Research Institute for Intelligent Autonomous Systems, Tongji University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
⁴ College of Education Science, Guangxi University for Nationalities, Nanning, Guangxi, People's Republic of China.
⁵ College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: This study explores the status of pandemic fatigue, predictors, and their mechanisms of action based on a stress-response framework and a parallel model of future-oriented response.

Patients and methods: Study 1 investigated 8426 Chinese adult residents' understanding of and willingness to cooperate with the pandemic prevention and control policies and Study 2 surveyed 1635 Chinese residents on their activeness of pandemic prevention and control (APPC), pandemic risk perception, perceived stress, and future-oriented coping.

Results: Study 1 found that public understanding of and willingness to cooperate with prevention policies were significantly lower in 2022 than in 2020 and 2021. Study 2 found that risk perception negatively predicted the APPC; perceived stress and preventive coping significantly mediated the relationship between risk perception and APPC; but perceived stress and proactive coping did not significantly mediate the relationship between risk perception and APPC.

Conclusion: This revealed an increase in public fatigue in the third year of the pandemic. Pandemic fatigue can be predicted by pandemic risk perception, but the direct pathway of action is not significant and requires the mediation of perceived stress and preventive coping.

Keywords: pandemic fatigue; preventive coping; proactive coping; risk perception; stress.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Project fund by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71704017] and supported by the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Science [grant numbers GJ202003].