Corrigendum: Impact of Divergent Thinking Training on Teenagers' Emotion and Self-Efficacy During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.600533.].

Effect of attribution on the emotions and behavioral intentions of third-party observers toward intergroup discriminators during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The global outbreak of novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 has caused intergroup discrimination associated with the disease to become increasingly prominent. Research demonstrates that the attitudes and behaviors of third-party observers significantly impact the progression of discrimination incidents. This study tested a parallel mediating model in which the attribution tendencies of observers influence their behavioral intentions through the mediating effect of the emotions of anger and contempt. The first two studies confirmed the proposed model with discrimination incidents reported against "returnees from Wuhan" and "returning workers from Hubei." Study 3 further manipulated the attribution tendencies of observers, providing empirical evidence for the causality from attribution tendencies to emotions, confirming the validity of the model. These findings enrich the cognitive (attribution)-emotion-action model, further enhancing our understanding of the role of third parties in intergroup conflicts, with implications for the management of people's emotions and behaviors in social crises.

Influence of smartphone use motives on smartphone addiction during the COVID-19 epidemic in China: the moderating effect of age.

With the development of science and technology, the phenomenon of smartphone addiction has become very common. However, smartphone addiction has adverse consequences. To date, few studies have examined psychological crises and smartphone use motives during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic according to age. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the influences of different types of smartphone use motives on smartphone addiction and explore the moderating effect of age on adolescents and adults. A total of 1346 participants (600 adults and 746 adolescents) completed questionnaires on their motives for smartphone use and smartphone addiction. Results indicated significant positive correlations between smartphone use motives and smartphone addiction. In the moderation model, mood regulation, social relations, pastime, and conformity significantly and directly predicted smartphone addiction; however, perceived enjoyment did not. Age played a moderating role in the prediction of smartphone addiction. Teenagers and adults have different motives for smartphone use, and different motives have different effects on adolescents and adults. Adolescents have higher coping motivation and conformity motivation than adults, and for adolescents, perceived pleasure motivation has a significant impact on smartphone addiction. For adults, perceived pleasure and social relationship motivation have a significant impact on smartphone addiction. Therefore, interventions for smartphone addiction can be developed by investigating the motives of use among different people, and age should be considered when developing interventions for smartphone addiction.

"Psychological Typhoon Eye Effect" and "Ripple Effect": Double perspective test of risk perception and anxiety characteristics of people in different COVID-19 severity regions

COVID-19 has greatly affected the psychological state of Chinese people. This study carried out a dynamic follow-up survey of the psychological state of Chinese people and their evaluation of Wuhan residents during the epidemic period since the day of Wuhan's citywide lockdown. The purpose of this work was to explore differences in degree of concern, risk perception, and anxiety response among regions affected by COVID-19 to different degrees. Our findings have important practical value for future crisis emergency management. This work included a large-scale survey covering 4833 Chinese residents, and it was conducted after Wuhan was closed. Its purpose was to assess whether COVID-19 invoked the psychological typhoon eye effect of a disaster event. The survey involved two angles, the "actor" angle, in which participants evaluated their own psychological states, and the "bystander" angle, in which participants evaluated other Wuhan citizens' psychological states. We called these Study 1 and Study 2. Study 1 explored the psychological state of residents themselves and the results were consistent with the ripple effect to some extent within the epidemic period, which is the opposite pattern of the psychological typhoon eye. The residents who lived near the hardest-hit areas showed significantly higher risk perception and anxiety. Study 2 explored how people from different areas evaluated Wuhan residents' psychological state. The results of Study 2 did show a replicated psychological typhoon eye effect in terms of anxiety, and number of psychological workers and doctors residents needed. However, when it came to risk cognition, residents in low-risk areas rated Wuhan citizens' risk cognition as significantly lower than people in high-risk areas did, which generally manifested as a ripple effect. This study also showed a marginal zone effect and a psychological controllable threshold. The concave effect means there was a phenomenon in which risk perception was lower in the middle zone or middle-risk area than at either end. The psychological controllable threshold is one of the sub-scales of risk cognition. That is, uncontrollability did not show the psychological typhoon eye effect in the bystander portion of our study. This paper further expands and enriches the boundary conditions of the psychological typhoon eye effect of public risk events, provides more abundant and direct research evidence for the perception difference between actor and bystander angle in the study of psychological typhoon eye effect, and has important implications for a deeper understanding of the psychological evolution of public health emergencies and public crisis management. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

The association between insecurity and subjective well-being among youth during the COVID-19 outbreak: A moderated mediation model.

BACKGROUND: Sudden and unpredictable changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have profoundly threatened the psychological well-being and increased insecurity among adolescents worldwide. At a critical developmental stage, the well-being of the youth is more vulnerable to adverse environments. This study constructed a moderated mediation model to explore the buffering factors between insecurity and subjective well-being of the youth during the pandemic. METHODS: During the COVID-19 outbreak in June 2020, data of 5,503 Chinese youth (15-29 years old) were collected via an online questionnaire. Subjective well-being, insecurity, self-control, and hope were measured, and the moderated mediation model was analyzed. RESULTS: Findings from this study showed that with the mediating effect of self-control, insecurity negatively predicted subjective well-being, and hope moderated the association between insecurity and self-control. Specifically, the link between insecurity and self-control was stronger when hope was low but weaker when hope was high. LIMITATIONS: Since this study was mainly conducted in China, and considering the continuous change of the pandemic on a global scale, it is of great significance to conduct cross-cultural and cross-time studies in the future. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate that self-control and hope play important roles in buffering the negative effects of insecurity on the subjective well-being of adolescents and young adults. The findings provide implications for reducing the negative impact of insecurity from a positive psychology perspective and for youth mental health interventions during public health crises.

The relationship of perceived social support to feelings of hopelessness under COVID-19 pandemic: The effects of epidemic risk and meaning in life.

Lockdown orders were issued on January 23, 2020 in Wuhan, China, for the purpose of preventing and controlling COVID-19, which led to severe psychological problems for residents. The present study aimed to investigate the recovery model of hopelessness through interpersonal pathways during the COVID-19 epidemic. An online survey was conducted in 34 provinces (those in autonomous regions and municipalities) of China. This survey investigated residents' hopelessness and the impact of three factors on it, including their perceived social support, meaning in life, and epidemic risk levels. Results showed that both perceived social support and meaning in life negatively predicted hopelessness, while meaning in life played a partial mediating role between perceived social support and hopelessness. Further, epidemic risk level played a moderating role between perceived social support and meaning in life, indicating a "marginal zone effect." Specifically, when comparing other province, perceived social support showed a stronger positive relationship with meaning in life among residents living in other regions of Hubei province. In sum, this study extends the recovery model of hopelessness through interpersonal pathways, and has important implications for public health emergency management.

Impact of Divergent Thinking Training on Teenagers' Emotion and Self-Efficacy During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Currently due to the COVID-19 pandemic, young people are experiencing a decrease in self-efficacy and an increase in mental illness. Though previous studies have shown that self-efficacy and divergent thinking training are positively related, little is known about the impact of divergent thinking training on self-efficacy and emotions. Therefore, our study seeks this answer to support teenagers injured psychologically during disastrous periods. We randomly assigned 70 students to a 2 (time: pretest, post-test) × 2 (groups: divergent thinking training, controlled) mixed design. Participants in the experimental group were given a 9-day divergent thinking training with the theme of "writing down 10 novel functions of the mask," while those in the control group spent 10 min each day recording what they ate. The self-efficacy, anxiety, depression, and stress of two groups were measured before and after training. Results showed that, compared to the control group, self-efficacy ceased decreasing while anxiety decreased for the experimental group. These findings confirm the positive effect of divergent thinking on teenagers. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Icing on the Cake: "Amplification Effect" of Innovative Information Form in News Reports About COVID-19.

In the information era, the instant and diversified broadcasting of the COVID-19 pandemic has played an important role in stabilizing the societal mental state and avoiding inter-group conflicts. The presentation of visual graphics was considered as an innovative information form and broadly utilized in news reports. However, its effects on the audiences' cognition and behaviors have received little empirical attention. The current study applied real-time and retrospective priming paradigms to examine the impacts of information framing (positive vs. negative) and form (plain text vs. pie chart) on individuals' risk perception (cognition), positive emotion (emotion), and willingness to help others (behavioral intention) during the outbreak and post-pandemic period in China. The results indicated the "amplification effect" of the innovative form of information in the real-time priming condition, which increased the effect of the information framing on cognition, emotion, and behavioral intention. However, in the retrospective priming condition, the amplification effect on cognition and emotion were weakened, while its effect on behavioral intention disappeared. In conclusion, the study found the "amplification effect" of innovative information forms. Further, the difference in the results in the real-time and retrospective priming paradigms suggested the constraint of the context of the "amplification effect," and indicated the possible deviation of the retrospective paradigm in studies about disaster-related news. This study provides empirical support for how subtle changes in information presentation influence public mental and behavioral responses during a pandemic and has important implications for media psychology and social governance.

Associations between insecurity and stress among Chinese university students: The mediating effects of hope and self-efficacy.

BACKGROUND: In the context of the pandemic, exploration on the association between insecurity and stress among university students is limited. The current study aims to investigate the parallel mediation role of hope and self-efficacy in the relationship between insecurity and stress among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We employed a cross-sectional research design in a university by distributing questionnaires online. 5286 participants were recruited (mean age = 19.65; SD = 1.13). Items were from the Security Questionnaire, Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21, and the Positive Psychology Capital (Psycap) Questionnaire (PPQ). Parallel mediation analysis was performed using PROCESS macro in SPSS. RESULTS: The results indicate that insecurity predicted students' stress positively and that students with high-level perceived insecurity are more likely to perceive stress. Moreover, hope and self-efficacy mediated the relationship between insecurity and stress, indicating that hope and self-efficacy could buffer the negative effects of insecurity on stress. LIMITATIONS: This study examines the mediating model between insecurity and stress among Chinese university students. The generalizability of the findings in other regions remains to be explored. Additionally, the roles of other positive self-beliefs including optimism and resilience in relieving stress can be further explored in future research. CONCLUSIONS: This research provides direct evidence of insecurity effects on stress among university students, enriching relevant theories in the field of stress. Moreover, this research suggests that enhancing positive self-beliefs such as hope, and self-efficacy helps to relieve students' stress during COVID-19.