Country/Region Level Pandemic Severity Moderates the Relationships among Risk Experience, Perceived Life Satisfaction, and Psychological Distress in COVID-19

Yi-Hui Christine Huang, Jie Sun (), Ruoheng Liu, Jennifer Lau and Qinxian Cai
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Yi-Hui Christine Huang: Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
Jie Sun: Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
Ruoheng Liu: Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
Jennifer Lau: Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
Qinxian Cai: Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 24, 1-13

Abstract: Scholars and communications practitioners worldwide have sought novel resilience models amid heightened rates of psychological distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined perceived life satisfaction as a determinant of resilience. Additionally, we investigated the assumption that perceived pandemic severity at the country/region level moderates structural relationships within our risk–resilience model. Analyzing more than 34,000 valid samples from 15 countries/regions, we found that (1) perceived life satisfaction alleviated psychological distress across all 15 countries/regions; and (2) country/region-level pandemic severity moderated the relationships among COVID-19 symptom experience, perceived life satisfaction, and psychological distress. The effects of COVID-19 symptom experience and perceived life satisfaction on psychological distress were conditional. We discuss possible mechanisms behind our findings and provide practical implications for mitigating psychological distress during public health crises.

Keywords: risk resilience model; social comparison; perceived life satisfaction; country/region-level severity; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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