Psychology Research and Behavior Management (Jun 2022)

Resilience and Prosocial Behavior Among Chinese University Students During COVID-19 Mitigation: Testing Mediation and Moderation Models of Social Support

  • Xue S,
  • Kaufman MR,
  • Zhang X,
  • Xia S,
  • Niu C,
  • Zhou R,
  • Xu W

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 15
pp. 1531 – 1543

Abstract

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Shuang Xue,1,2 Michelle R Kaufman,3 Xing Zhang,4 Shunan Xia,5 Chengcheng Niu,6 Rui Zhou,7 Wenjian Xu1,2 1Department of Sociology & Psychology, School of Public Administration, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China; 2Institute of Psychology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China; 3Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; 4School of Psychology, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, People’s Republic of China; 5School of Social Development and Public Policy, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 6Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China; 7College of Marxism, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Wenjian Xu; Rui Zhou, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Suffering during events such as the COVID-19 pandemic threatens university students’ physical and psychological health. Given the literature indicating the protective role of resilience and social support, the current study explored the mediating and moderating roles of social support in the association between resilience and prosocial behavior among university students in mainland China during COVID-19 mitigation.Methods: We conducted an online survey using convenience sampling from 23rd February to 3rd March 2020 among Chinese university students who had encountered home-quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Self-report scales were used to measure levels of resilience (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale), social support (the Social Support Scale), and prosocial behavior (Prosocial Tendencies Measure). A total of 313 university students participated in this online survey. Hayes PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to test the hypothesized mediating and moderating effects of social support in the relationship between resilience and prosocial behavior.Results: Pearson’s correlations analysis showed that all outcomes of interest were positively associated. Importantly, social support (subjective support, objective support, and support utilization) mediated the indirect link of resilience with prosocial behavior. Furthermore, moderation analyses indicated that support utilization played a moderating role in this link. Support utilization may reduce the negative influence of COVID-19 on university students’ prosocial behavior and serve as a protective factor between resilience and prosocial behavior in highly stressful contexts.Conclusion: Our findings enrich research on prosocial behavior by investigating the potential internal and external variables that influence such behavior during periods of suffering. Findings also provide evidence for the need to promote university students’ prosocial behavior.Keywords: COVID-19, resilience, social support, prosocial behavior, mediation and moderation

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