Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 Information Acquisition on University Students' Psychological Capital: The Mediating Roles of Risk Perception and Emotional Coping in a Chain Model

Abstract

Abstract Background University students in the 2022 Shanghai epidemic went through monthslong city-wide lockdowns, during which period, social media platforms were primary ways for this population to acquire COVID-19 related information. Psychological health of young adults on campus is concerned throughout this research. This study integrated the theory of psychological capital (PsyCap) in research whether and how social media information overload could impact students’ psychological capital under the context of 2022 COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai. Findings from this research shed light on the underpinning mechanism of whether and how social media information overload shapes risk perception in the student population within Shanghai, and explore how students’ correspondingly emotional coping associates with their psychological inner being. Methods A cross-sectional study among students who encountered with emergency outbreaks in Shanghai from March to June, 2022 was conducted. Over 400 valid samples were used to construct the following analysis. Hierarchical linear regression analysis was conducted using SPSS Statistics Version 26. The chain mediated model was verified using PROCESS. Results Information overload is positively related to personal risk perception and societal risk perception. Risk perception leads to emotional coping in university students, which correspondingly predicts the psychological capital of these individuals in face of public health emergencies. Though information overload caused by social media is negatively related to students’ mental well-being, it contributes to emotional coping in a positive sense. Conclusions Information overload due to social media usage accounts for risk perception on both a personal-level and a societal-level, which encourages students’ adoption of emotional coping strategies, thus leading to predictions of students’ psychological capital. This study identifies a chain mediated model structured by variables including information overload, risk perception, emotional coping, and psychological capital of university students during the 2022 outbreak in Shanghai.