The Influencing Factors of The Social Environment of Public Psychological Crisis In COVID-19

The COVID-19 epidemic spreads around the world early in 2020. As a public emergency, the COVID-19 epidemic has caused a public psychological crisis such as panic, anxiety and worry. Government trust and social support are considered social environmental factors affecting the public psychological crisis, but there is a lack of strong empirical evidence. Thus, it has important theoretical and practical significance to study the impact of government trust and social support on the public psychological crisis. Through regression analysis of the questionnaire during the pandemic, we found that government trust helps reduce public psychological crises, but informal social support increases public psychological crises. Therefore, strengthening government trust and preventing the negative effects of informal social support are effective ways to alleviate public psychological crises.

Domestic Generative Acts and Life Satisfaction among Supplementary Grandparent Caregivers in Urban China: Mediated by Social Support and Moderated by Hukou Status

Urban China is witnessing a growth of migrant grandparents apart from the prevalent local grandparent caregiving. However, the health consequences and influencing factors of grandparent caregiving remain largely unknown among migrant and local grandparent caregivers. This study examined informal and formal social support’s mediation roles between domestic generative acts and life satisfaction, as well as investigating Hukou’s (household registration system) moderation effect. Our sample compromised 1013 grandparent caregivers (Migrant = 508, Local = 505) from 12 kindergartens with a multistage clustered random sampling from Eastern China. Migrant grandparent caregivers had significant lower informal social support (M = 4.000, L = 4.355, p < 0.001), formal social support (M = 1.787, L = 2.111, p < 0.001), and life satisfaction (M = 3.323, L = 3.574, p < 0.001) than local ones. Structural equation modeling results indicated that domestic generative acts positively associated with life satisfaction (b = 0.085, p < 0.05), informal (b = 0.223, p < 0.001) and formal social support (b = 0.080, p < 0.05); informal (b = 0.379, p < 0.001) and formal social support (b = 0.138, p < 0.001) positively associated with life satisfaction. In addition, both informal (β = 0.084, CI [0.039, 0.101], p < 0.001) and formal social support (β = 0.011, CI [0.001, 0.018], p < 0.05) mediated the relationship between domestic generative acts and life satisfaction. Furthermore, Hukou status moderated the indirect path from domestic generative acts to life satisfaction via informal social support (p < 0.01), but not formal social support (p > 0.05). Migrant grandparent caregivers, with limited formal social support resources, were found to be more dependent on informal social support than locals. The findings revealed social support and wellbeing disparities among migrant and local grandparent caregivers in urban China. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are also discussed.

Understanding Stability and Change in Perceived Social Support in Parents of Autistic Children and Adolescents

Parents of children with autism often have their own support needs. Informal social support can be an important component of managing parenting-related stressors. We know very little about the factors that lead to higher levels of perceived social support or the potential reciprocal relationship social support has with other factors in parents of children with autism. The current longitudinal study examined the reciprocal relations of perceived social support and parent stress and child behavior problems across a 1-year period, using three time points. There was remarkable stability in variables over time. Baseline perceived social support significantly predicted changes in child behavior and parent stress at the 6-month time point, but neither of those variables significantly predicted social support. This study adds to our understanding of social support and clarifies how perceived social support relates to other factors longitudinally.

A New Perspective of Urban–Rural Differences: The Impact of Social Support on the Mental Health of the Older Adults: A Case from Shaanxi Province, China

With the increase in aging in China, the health problems of older adults, especially mental health problems, have become a concern for the whole society. This article selected urban and rural older adults and analyzed the impact of social support on their mental health using a binary logistic model. It was found that under the current urban–rural dichotomy, the effects of social support on the mental health of urban and rural older adults are significantly different. In social support, first, the fairness and satisfaction with the social security system only had a significant effect on the mental health of urban older adults and had no significant effect on the rural older adults. Second, the closeness of contact with grassroots community workers had a significant impact on the mental health of older adults in urban and rural areas. From informal social support, the mental health of rural older adults was mainly influenced by the support of their children, reflecting the influence of the traditional culture of “filial piety”. Furthermore, the mental health of urban older adults was mainly influenced by neighborhood support, reflecting the importance of “close neighbors are better than distant relatives”. Based on the results of the empirical study, this article suggests that to promote the mental health of older adults, we should start by strengthening the formal social support system, establishing high-quality community service facilities, and emphasizing the role of informal social support.

Rural Safety Net Use During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Despite unparalleled government relief spending, many households have fallen into financial distress during the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, reports of non-governmental forms of disaster aid - both from organizations and among individuals - are widespread. Given that formal government programs have not fully met the material needs of many households across the United States during the pandemic, we build on disaster scholarship to compare utilization of three distinct forms of disaster support to better understand how households are getting by: (1) government safety net programs, (2) not-for-profit support, and (3) informal social support. We focus our study on a large, yet especially vulnerable and under-researched population: rural residents across the Western U.S. Drawing on results from a representative survey fielded during the summer of 2020, we find that informal social support was the most widely used safety net, with over half of all residents giving or receiving some form of informal support. However, differences in age, education, sex, race, ethnicity, and homeownership status variously predicted different types of safety net use, demonstrating the unevenness of pandemic impacts and access to relief resources across demographic groups. Finally, rural residents who experienced the worst pandemic impacts were the most likely to utilize any of the three forms of safety nets examined. Despite identified limitations to government relief, both formal government programs and informal social support systems were utilized by those most affected by the pandemic.