Worry About COVID-19, Acquiring Health Information, and Communication Resilience Processes: Creating Resilience During the First Wave of the U.S. Pandemic

ABSTRACT

Integrating concepts from the communication theory of resilience (CTR) with theories of health information management and media-stimulated interpersonal conversation, this study investigates associations between worry about COVID-19, acquiring health information from government, news, and personal sources, and enactment of resilience processes. Findings from a representative sample (N = 600) of Floridians show that the extent to which people worried that they or their loves ones might contract COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic predicted the extent to which they reported getting health information from a range of news (e.g. national and local newspapers) and personal (e.g. family, friends/coworkers) sources. A serial multiple mediator model found that worry about COVID-19 was associated with acquiring information about COVID from news sources, which predicted getting information about COVID from personal sources, which in turn predicted enactment of resilience processes. Discussion centers on the role that emotions as well as information management at multiple levels (e.g. media, close relationships) play in people’s attempts to enact resilience in the context of a public health emergency.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Nielsen Holdings and the University of South Florida’s School of Public Affairs for financial and data support, including Amy Rettig, David Chawk, Kimberly Hawkins, Stephen Neely, and Angela Crist. We also thank Patrice Buzzanell for offering comments on this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For example, post-traumatic growth was correlated at r = .59 and .54 respectively with the 32-item CRPS and 7-item CRPS-SF in Study 2, and at r = .61 and .51 respectively in Study 3. Mental health was associated at r = .40 and .41 respectively with the 32-item CRPS and 7-item CRPS-SF in Study 2, and r = .26 and .31 respectively in Study 3 (all significant at p < .001).

2. Inspection of modification indices for our data suggested correlating the error term for item 1 (“I have made an effort to keep up with my daily routines”) with four other items. After cutting item 1, the remaining six items fit a single-factor model χ²(9) = 22.212, χ²/df = 2.458, CFI =.975, RMSEA =.049. However, item 1 had a moderately strong item-total correlation, r = .38, and cutting item 1 reduced the short form’s reliability from ω = .72 to .70. Given this, plus the fact that the 7 items were unidimensional in two other datasets, we chose to retain all 7 items.

3. We ran the proposed model with information acquisition from government sources as a control (in addition to those shown in Figure 1). Results were very similar to those shown in Figure 1; for example, all significant paths and indirect effects remained statistically significant.

4. Complete findings for the alternative model can be obtained from the first author.

5. Because Crowley et al. (2021) found that age moderated the association between uncertainty discrepancy and direct information seeking, we conducted post-hoc analyses to assess whether age moderated associations in our proposed model. After controlling for gender, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, income, and political liberalism, age did moderate the association between worry about COVID-19 and acquiring information from news and personal sources. In both cases, the association was not significant at the 16^th percentile for age (27 years old) but was significant and positive at the median (47 years) and 84^th percentiles (67 years). In contrast, age did not moderate the association between acquiring information from news or personal sources and enacting resilience processes (p > .27in both cases).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.