IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i5p2832-d761090.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Response Efficacy and Self-Efficacy Mediated the Relationship between Perceived Threat and Psychic Anxiety among College Students in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Wenpei Zhang

    (Business Administration, School of Business, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan 243032, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Shankuo Xiong

    (Business Administration, School of Business, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan 243032, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Yelianghui Zheng

    (Business Administration, School of Business, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan 243032, China)

  • Jinnan Wu

    (Business Administration, School of Business, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan 243032, China)

Abstract

Applying Fear Appeals Theory and Social Learning Theory, this study aims to explore the impact of perceived threat on psychic anxiety among college students in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic and the mediating roles of response efficacy and self-efficacy. An empirical study was conducted using an online cross-sectional survey in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020. A random sampling method was applied to administer questionnaires to 646 Chinese college students. The results showed that: (1) the perceived threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, including perceived susceptibility and severity, was positively correlated with psychic anxiety; (2) self-efficacy mediated the effect of both perceived susceptibility and severity on psychic anxiety, while the response efficacy only mediated the effect of perceived susceptibility on psychic anxiety; and (3) response efficacy and self-efficacy played a serial mediating role on the relationship between perceived susceptibility and psychic anxiety. This study elucidates the relationship between perceived threat and psychic anxiety from the perspective of cognitive appraisal of threat, showing the role positive efficacy appraisal played in reducing psychic anxiety, which could be induced by the perceived threat of major public health emergencies such as COVID-19 pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Wenpei Zhang & Shankuo Xiong & Yelianghui Zheng & Jinnan Wu, 2022. "Response Efficacy and Self-Efficacy Mediated the Relationship between Perceived Threat and Psychic Anxiety among College Students in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-11, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:5:p:2832-:d:761090
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/5/2832/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/5/2832/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cuiyan Wang & Riyu Pan & Xiaoyang Wan & Yilin Tan & Linkang Xu & Cyrus S. Ho & Roger C. Ho, 2020. "Immediate Psychological Responses and Associated Factors during the Initial Stage of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Epidemic among the General Population in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-25, March.
    2. Naresh K. Malhotra & Sung S. Kim & Ashutosh Patil, 2006. "Common Method Variance in IS Research: A Comparison of Alternative Approaches and a Reanalysis of Past Research," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(12), pages 1865-1883, December.
    3. Juan Yang & Xinhua Chen & Xiaowei Deng & Zhiyuan Chen & Hui Gong & Han Yan & Qianhui Wu & Huilin Shi & Shengjie Lai & Marco Ajelli & Cecile Viboud & Prof Hongjie Yu, 2020. "Disease burden and clinical severity of the first pandemic wave of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Wu, Jinnan & Mei, Wenjuan & Liu, Lin & Ugrin, Joseph C., 2020. "The bright and dark sides of social cyberloafing: Effects on employee mental health in China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 56-64.
    5. Marzena Cypryańska & John B Nezlek, 2020. "Anxiety as a mediator of relationships between perceptions of the threat of COVID-19 and coping behaviors during the onset of the pandemic in Poland," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(10), pages 1-16, October.
    6. Jing Guan & Cuiping Wu & Dandan Wei & Qingqing Xu & Juan Wang & Hualiang Lin & Chongjian Wang & Zhenxing Mao, 2021. "Prevalence and Factors for Anxiety during the COVID-19 Pandemic among College Students in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-11, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Szczuka, Zofia & Siwa, Maria & Abraham, Charles & Baban, Adriana & Brooks, Sydney & Cipolletta, Sabrina & Danso, Ebrima & Dombrowski, Stephan U. & Gan, Yiqun & Gaspar, Tania & Gaspar de Matos, Margari, 2023. "Handwashing adherence during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study based on protection motivation theory," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Md Altab Hossin & Lie Chen & Md Sajjad Hosain & Isaac Owusu Asante, 2022. "Does COVID-19 Fear Induce Employee Innovation Performance Deficiency? Examining the Mediating Role of Psychological Stress and Moderating Role of Organizational Career Support," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-22, August.
    2. Xiao Gu & Bojan Obrenovic & Wei Fu, 2023. "Empirical Study on Social Media Exposure and Fear as Drivers of Anxiety and Depression during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Hota, Monali & Bartsch, Fabian, 2019. "Consumer socialization in childhood and adolescence: Impact of psychological development and family structure," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 11-20.
    4. J. Pierre Zila-Velasque & Pamela Grados-Espinoza & Naomi Coba-Villan & Jocelyn Quispe-Chamorro & Yesenia F. Taipe-Guillén & Estefany Pacheco & Laura Ccasa-Valero & Virgilio E. Failoc-Rojas & Cristian , 2022. "Mental Disorders and Level of Resilience in Eight High-Altitude Cities of Peru during the Second Pandemic Wave: A Multicenter Population-Based Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-19, December.
    5. Hee-Kyung Kim, 2022. "In the COVID-19 Era, Effects of Job Stress, Coping Strategies, Meaning in Life and Resilience on Psychological Well-Being of Women Workers in the Service Sector," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-15, August.
    6. Isabel Mercader Rubio & Pilar Sánchez-López & Nieves Gutiérrez Ángel & Nieves Fátima Oropesa Ruiz, 2022. "Psychological Consequences of Fear of COVID-19: Symptom Analysis of Triggered Anxiety and Depression Disorders in Adolescents and Young Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-8, October.
    7. Jean–Luc Arregle & Bat Batjargal & Michael A. Hitt & Justin W. Webb & Toyah Miller & Anne S. Tsui, 2015. "Family Ties in Entrepreneurs’ Social Networks and New Venture Growth," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(2), pages 313-344, March.
    8. Jebarajakirthy, Charles & Shankar, Amit, 2021. "Impact of online convenience on mobile banking adoption intention: A moderated mediation approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    9. S. Brent Jackson & Kathryn T. Stevenson & Lincoln R. Larson & M. Nils Peterson & Erin Seekamp, 2021. "Outdoor Activity Participation Improves Adolescents’ Mental Health and Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-18, March.
    10. Piotr Długosz & Damian Liszka & Anastasiia Bastrakova & Luydmila Yuzva, 2022. "Health Problems of Students during Distance Learning in Central and Eastern Europe: A Cross-Sectional Study of Poland and Ukraine," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-16, August.
    11. Dong-Hong Zhu & Ya-Ping Chang, 2013. "Negative Publicity Effect of the Business Founder’s Unethical Behavior on Corporate Image: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 111-121, September.
    12. Nedkovski, Vojkan & Guerci, Marco & De Battisti, Francesca & Siletti, Elena, 2017. "Organizational ethical climates and employee's trust in colleagues, the supervisor, and the organization," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 19-26.
    13. Sangryeong Lee & Soo-Kyoung Lee & Jin-Woo Park, 2024. "The Effect of Service Quality and Sustainability Practices on Brand Equity: The Case of Korean Air Passengers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-20, May.
    14. Heiko Bergmann, 2017. "The formation of opportunity beliefs among university entrepreneurs: an empirical study of research- and non-research-driven venture ideas," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 116-140, February.
    15. Mäntymäki, Matti & Salo, Jari, 2013. "Purchasing behavior in social virtual worlds: An examination of Habbo Hotel," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 282-290.
    16. Musarra, Giuseppe & Kadile, Vita & Zaefarian, Ghasem & Oghazi, Pejvak & Najafi-Tavani, Zhaleh, 2022. "Emotions, culture intelligence, and mutual trust in technology business relationships," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    17. Hsu, Dan K. & Burmeister-Lamp, Katrin & Simmons, Sharon A. & Foo, Maw-Der & Hong, Michelle C. & Pipes, Jesse D., 2019. "“I know I can, but I don't fit”: Perceived fit, self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial intention," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 311-326.
    18. Artem Kashtanov & Ekaterina Molotok & Andrey Yavorovskiy & Alexander Boyarkov & Yuriy Vasil’ev & Ali Alsaegh & Sergey Dydykin & Olesya Kytko & Renata Meylanova & Yulianna Enina & Vasiliy Troitskiy & M, 2022. "A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study Assessing the Psycho-Emotional State of Intensive Care Units’ Physicians and Nurses of COVID-19 Hospitals of a Russian Metropolis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-22, February.
    19. Lin Jia & Xiuwei Song & Dianne Hall, 2022. "Influence of Habits on Mobile Payment Acceptance: An Ecosystem Perspective," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 247-266, February.
    20. Neus Vila-Brunet & Josep Llach, 2020. "OSS-Qual: Holistic Scale to Assess Customer Quality Perception When Buying Secondhand Products in Online Platforms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-15, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:5:p:2832-:d:761090. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.