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. 2020 Aug 27;17(17):6256.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17176256.

The Impact of Risk Perception on Social Distancing during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

Kefan Xie  1   2 , Benbu Liang  1 , Maxim A Dulebenets  3 , Yanlan Mei  4   5
Affiliations

The Impact of Risk Perception on Social Distancing during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

Kefan Xie et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Social distancing is one of the most recommended policies worldwide to reduce diffusion risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a risk management perspective, this study explores the mechanism of the risk perception effect on social distancing in order to improve individual physical distancing behavior. The data for this study were collected from 317 Chinese residents in May 2020 using an internet-based survey. A structural equation model (SEM) and hierarchical linear regression (HLR) analyses were conducted to examine all the considered research hypotheses. The results show that risk perception significantly affects perceived understanding and social distancing behaviors in a positive way. Perceived understanding has a significant positive correlation with social distancing behaviors and plays a mediating role in the relationship between risk perception and social distancing behaviors. Furthermore, safety climate positively predicts social distancing behaviors but lessens the positive correlation between risk perception and social distancing. Hence, these findings suggest effective management guidelines for successful implementation of the social distancing policies during the COVID-19 pandemic by emphasizing the critical role of risk perception, perceived understanding, and safety climate.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; public health; risk perception; safety climate; social distancing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Keywords co-occurrence networks of social distancing research.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Conceptual framework.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Standard loads, errors, and standardized regression weights of the structural equation model (SEM).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Safety Climate as a function of the interaction between Risk Perception and Social Distancing.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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