The Relationship Between Perceived Vulnerability to Disease and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Serial Mediation by Fear of COVID-19 and Trust in the Government

PURPOSE: The continuing global spread of COVID-19 has seriously jeopardized human mental health. How to reduce the damage of COVID-19 pandemic to people’s mental health is a current research hotspot. The purpose of this study was to explore the influence mechanism of perceived vulnerability to disease on anxiety level during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A total of 1085 Chinese subjects were investigated by using the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Scale, Trust in the Government Measure Scale and Anxiety Scale, which was conducted by an online survey using snowball sampling technique. Hayes PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to test the hypothesized mediating effects of fear of COVID-19 and rust in the government measure in the relationship between perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD) and anxiety. RESULTS: (1) the PVD significantly positively predicts anxiety level (0.001); (2) Fear of COVID-19 (p<0.001) and trust in the government (p<0.001) mediated the relationship between PVD and anxiety level respectively; (3) PVD could also indirectly predict anxiety level through the chain-mediated role of the fear of COVID-19 and the trust in the government measure (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Our findings shed light on a correlation between perceived vulnerability to disease and anxiety. This study emphasizes the value of trust in the government in facing public stress events. Moreover, this study provides some implications for how to prevent or reduce public anxiety in an epidemic setting.