The effect of the social support on PTSD and PTG about university student volunteers in the prevention and controlling of coronavirus: with coping style as the intermediary

To investigate the relationship among post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), posttraumatic growth (PTG), social support, and coping style of university student volunteers in the prevention and control of the coronavirus in 2020, a total of 2,990 university student volunteers (students who are enrolled in a university and involved in volunteer activities) from 20 universities in Sichuan Province participated in the prevention and control of the epidemic were investigated when March 20–31, 2020 when the coronavirus first occurred using the post-traumatic stress disorder questionnaire, posttraumatic growth questionnaire, university student social support questionnaire and coping style questionnaire. The results showed that (1) 7.06% of university student volunteers had some degree of PTSD symptoms (the total PCL-C score was 38–49), and 2.88% had obvious PTSD symptoms, (2) PTSD level of university student volunteers was significantly positively correlated with negative coping style, and significantly negatively correlated with social support and positive coping style; on the contrary, the PTG level is significantly positively correlated with social support and positive coping styles, and (3) Positive coping style plays a partial mediating role in the influence of social support on PTG; in the influence of social support on PTSD, the mediating effect of positive or negative coping style was not significant. These results show that in the prevention and control of the coronavirus, the positive coping style and social support of university student volunteers can positively predict the PTG level of them, while the negative coping style can positively predict the severity of their PTSD symptoms. Among them, a positive coping style plays a partial mediating role in the influence of social support on the PTG level.