【Objective】 To explore the effects of perceived
risk of COVID-19 of college
students on their
anxiety and
depression, as well as the
roles of
attention to negative information and
perceived social support, so as to provide theoretical basis for colleges and
universities to formulate corresponding intervention
measures. 【
Methods】 By the convenience sampling
method, totally 1 404 college
students from Shaanxi and Henan provinces were investigated online by using General Information
Questionnaire, Perceived
Risk of COVID-19 Pandemic Scale,
Attention to Negative Information Scale,
Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalized
Anxiety Disorder and
Perceived Social Support Scale. SPSS 20.0 was used for
data analysis, Pearson correlation
method was used to explore the correlation between variables. The
mediating effect of
attention to negative information and the moderating effect of
perceived social support were analyzed by PROCESS. 【Results】 The scores of
anxiety and
depression of the 1 404 college
students included in the study were 4.03±4.48 and 6.21±5.41, respectively. The
detection rate of
anxiety symptom was 29.9%, and that of
depression symptom was 44.4%. The
risk perception of COVID-19
epidemic of the college
students was positively correlated with
attention to negative information (r=0.373, P<0.001),
anxiety (r=0.227, P<0.001), and
depression (r=0.226, P<0.001).
Anxiety (r=0.553, P<0.001) and
depression (r=0.497, P<0.001) were positively correlated with
attention to negative information, while
perceived social support was negatively correlated with the
risk perception of the COVID-19 (r=-0.154, P<0.001),
attention to negative information (r=-0.259, P<0.001),
anxiety (r=-0.321, P<0.001) and
depression (r=-0.278, P<0.001). The
risk perception of COVID-19 affected the
anxiety and
depression of the
students mainly through the
mediating effect of
attention to negative information. The total effect of
risk perception of COVID-19 and
anxiety was 0.227, and the
mediating effect accounted for 80.18% of the total effect. The total effect of
risk perception of COVID-19 and
depression was 0.228, and the
mediating effect accounted for 90.35% of the total effect.
Perceived social support played a moderating
role in the last half of this
mediating model. 【Conclusion】
Risk perception of COVID-19 indirectly
affects the occurrence of
anxiety and
depression in college
students through
attention to negative information, and
perceived social support plays a moderating
role in this
mediating model. The findings suggest that when a
risk event occurs, colleges and
universities should pay
attention to guiding
students to adjust their
attentional bias to external information, and give
students enough care and support to improve their
mental health.