Fear in the Chinese Population: Influential Patterns in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Major global public health emergencies challenge public mental health. Negative emotions, and especially fear, may endanger social stability. To better cope with epidemics and pandemics, early emotional guidance should be provided based on an understanding of the status of public emotions in the giv...
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doaj-699ab7600b2e48538dd1a7f16cca08722021-06-01T05:01:50ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-06-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.567364567364Fear in the Chinese Population: Influential Patterns in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 PandemicBeijing Chen0Xiaoxiao Sun1Fei Xie2Mengjia Zhang3Sitong Shen4Zhaohua Chen5Yuan Yuan6Peixia Shi7Xuemei Qin8Yingzhe Liu9Yuan Wang10Qin Dai11Department of Nursing Psychology, Army Medical University, Chongqing, ChinaDepartment of Nursing Psychology, Army Medical University, Chongqing, ChinaDepartment of Nursing Psychology, Army Medical University, Chongqing, ChinaDepartment of Nursing Psychology, Army Medical University, Chongqing, ChinaDepartment of Nursing Psychology, Army Medical University, Chongqing, ChinaDepartment of Nursing Psychology, Army Medical University, Chongqing, ChinaDepartment of Clinical Nursing, Southwest Hospital of Army Medical University, Chongqing, ChinaDepartment of Neurology, Xin Qiao Hospital of Army Medical University, Chongqing, ChinaDepartment of Nursing Psychology, Army Medical University, Chongqing, ChinaDepartment of Neurology, The Hospital of 81st Group Army PLA, Zhang Jiakou, ChinaDepartment of Teaching and Research Support Center, Army Medical University, Chongqing, ChinaDepartment of Nursing Psychology, Army Medical University, Chongqing, ChinaMajor global public health emergencies challenge public mental health. Negative emotions, and especially fear, may endanger social stability. To better cope with epidemics and pandemics, early emotional guidance should be provided based on an understanding of the status of public emotions in the given circumstances. From January 27 to February 11, 2020 (during which the cases of COVID-19 were increasing), a national online survey of the Chinese public was conducted. A total of 132,482 respondents completed a bespoke questionnaire, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire (BEQ). Results showed that at the early stage of the COVID-19 epidemic, 53.0% of the Chinese population reported varying degrees of fear, mostly mild. As seen from regression analysis, for individuals who were unmarried and with a relatively higher educational level, living in city or area with fewer confirmed cases, cognitive reappraisal, positive expressivity and negative inhibition were the protective factors of fear. For participants being of older age, female, a patient or medical staff member, risk perception, negative expressivity, positive impulse strength and negative impulse strength were the risk factors for fear. The levels of fear and avoidant behavior tendencies were risk factors for disturbed physical function. Structural equation modeling suggested that fear emotion had a mediation between risk perception and escape behavior and physical function disturbance. The findings help to reveal the public emotional status at the early stage of the pandemic based on a large Chinese sample, allowing targeting of the groups that most need emotional guidance under crisis. Findings also provide evidence of the need for psychological assistance in future major public health emergencies.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.567364/fullCOVID-19Chinese populationfearpandemicmental health |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Beijing Chen Xiaoxiao Sun Fei Xie Mengjia Zhang Sitong Shen Zhaohua Chen Yuan Yuan Peixia Shi Xuemei Qin Yingzhe Liu Yuan Wang Qin Dai |
spellingShingle |
Beijing Chen Xiaoxiao Sun Fei Xie Mengjia Zhang Sitong Shen Zhaohua Chen Yuan Yuan Peixia Shi Xuemei Qin Yingzhe Liu Yuan Wang Qin Dai Fear in the Chinese Population: Influential Patterns in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic Frontiers in Psychology COVID-19 Chinese population fear pandemic mental health |
author_facet |
Beijing Chen Xiaoxiao Sun Fei Xie Mengjia Zhang Sitong Shen Zhaohua Chen Yuan Yuan Peixia Shi Xuemei Qin Yingzhe Liu Yuan Wang Qin Dai |
author_sort |
Beijing Chen |
title |
Fear in the Chinese Population: Influential Patterns in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_short |
Fear in the Chinese Population: Influential Patterns in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_full |
Fear in the Chinese Population: Influential Patterns in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_fullStr |
Fear in the Chinese Population: Influential Patterns in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fear in the Chinese Population: Influential Patterns in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic |
title_sort |
fear in the chinese population: influential patterns in the early stage of the covid-19 pandemic |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Psychology |
issn |
1664-1078 |
publishDate |
2021-06-01 |
description |
Major global public health emergencies challenge public mental health. Negative emotions, and especially fear, may endanger social stability. To better cope with epidemics and pandemics, early emotional guidance should be provided based on an understanding of the status of public emotions in the given circumstances. From January 27 to February 11, 2020 (during which the cases of COVID-19 were increasing), a national online survey of the Chinese public was conducted. A total of 132,482 respondents completed a bespoke questionnaire, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire (BEQ). Results showed that at the early stage of the COVID-19 epidemic, 53.0% of the Chinese population reported varying degrees of fear, mostly mild. As seen from regression analysis, for individuals who were unmarried and with a relatively higher educational level, living in city or area with fewer confirmed cases, cognitive reappraisal, positive expressivity and negative inhibition were the protective factors of fear. For participants being of older age, female, a patient or medical staff member, risk perception, negative expressivity, positive impulse strength and negative impulse strength were the risk factors for fear. The levels of fear and avoidant behavior tendencies were risk factors for disturbed physical function. Structural equation modeling suggested that fear emotion had a mediation between risk perception and escape behavior and physical function disturbance. The findings help to reveal the public emotional status at the early stage of the pandemic based on a large Chinese sample, allowing targeting of the groups that most need emotional guidance under crisis. Findings also provide evidence of the need for psychological assistance in future major public health emergencies. |
topic |
COVID-19 Chinese population fear pandemic mental health |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.567364/full |
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