The Relationships among Anxiety, Subjective Well-Being, Media Consumption, and Safety-Seeking Behaviors during the COVID-19 Epidemic

Yi-Fang Luo, Heng-Yu Shen, Shu-Ching Yang and Liang-Ching Chen
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Yi-Fang Luo: The Intelligent Electronic Commerce Research Center, Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
Heng-Yu Shen: The Intelligent Electronic Commerce Research Center, Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
Shu-Ching Yang: The Intelligent Electronic Commerce Research Center, Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan
Liang-Ching Chen: The Intelligent Electronic Commerce Research Center, Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 24, 1-12

Abstract: The COVID-19 epidemic has been confirmed as the largest scale outbreak of atypical pneumonia since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 and it has become a public health emergency of international concern. It exacerbated public confusion and anxiety, and the impact of COVID-19 on people needs to be better understood. Indeed, prior studies that conducted meta-analysis of longitudinal cohort research compared mental health before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic and proved that public health polices (e.g., city lockdowns, quarantines, avoiding gatherings, etc.) and COVID-19-related information that circulates on new media platforms directly affected citizen’s mental health and well-being. Hence, this research aims to explore Taiwanese people’s health status, anxiety, media sources for obtaining COVID-19 information, subjective well-being, and safety-seeking behavior during the COVID-19 epidemic and how they are associated. Online surveys were conducted through new media platforms, and 342 responses were included in the analysis. The research results indicate that the participants experienced different aspects of COVID-19 anxiety, including COVID-19 worry and perceived COVID-19 risk. Among the given media sources, the more participants searched for COVID-19 information on new media, the greater they worried about COVID-19. Furthermore, COVID-19 worry was positively related to safety-seeking behavior, while perceived COVID-19 risk was negatively related to subjective well-being. This paper concludes by offering some suggestions for future studies and pointing out limitations of the present study.

Keywords: COVID-19 epidemic; anxiety; media consumption; subjective well-being; safety-seeking behaviors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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