Fear of COVID-19 and Anxiety: Serial Mediation by Trust in the Government and Hope

Abstract

Purpose

How to reduce the damage of COVID-19 pandemic to people’s mental health is a current research hotspot. The present study examined the mediating role of trust in the government and hope in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and anxiety.

Participants and Methods

In this cross-sectional study, a total of 1053 Chinese subjects (20.24±3.97 years old, 85.3% female) were investigated by using the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, Anxiety Scale, Trust in the Government Measure Scale and Herth Hope 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 trust in the government and hope in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and anxiety.

Results

The fear of COVID-19 could positively predict anxiety level (β=0.36, p<0.001). Results of the mediation analyses demonstrated that trust in the government (β=−0.16, p<0.001) and hope (β=−0.28, p<0.001) mediated the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and anxiety level respectively. Moreover, fear of COVID-19 could also indirectly predict anxiety level through the chain-mediated role of the trust in the government and the hope (β=0.28, p<0.001).

Conclusion

Our findings shed light on a correlation between fear of COVID-19 and anxiety. This study emphasizes the value of trust in the government and hope in maintaining mental health when individuals face public stress events from both external and internal perspectives.

Keywords:

• COVID-19 pandemic
• trust in government
• hope
• anxiety
• serial mediation

Ethical Considerations

The study has received ethics approval from the Ethics Committee of Xinyang Normal University (Project no: XYEC-2021-002).

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32200902), funding scheme for young core teachers of Xinyang Normal University (XYNU), Nanhu Scholars Program for Young Scholars of XYNU.