How social support predicts anxiety among university students during COVID‐19 control phase: Mediating roles of self‐esteem and resilience.

Public health emergency, such as COVID‐19 pandemic, generally has severe impacts on mental health in public. One of the often‐neglected negative consequences is that the control and prevention measures of COVID‐19 in the post‐epidemic can pose psychological threats to public mental health. This study aimed to seek the factors and mechanisms to alleviate this mental health threat based on a sample of university students in China. Accordingly, this study proposed an environmental‐individual interaction model examining the multiple mediating effects of self‐esteem and resilience in the association between social support and anxiety among university students during COVID‐19 control phase. A questionnaire containing multiple scales were administered on the sample of 2734 Chinese university students. Results indicated that social support negatively predicted anxiety through the serial mediating effects of self‐esteem and resilience sequentially. Our results highlight the impact of social support and the internal factors on relieving anxiety among university students in COVID‐19 control phase. Findings suggest that effective psychological intervention tools should be designed and offered to college students to reduce anxiety distress and improve mental health in the post‐epidemic era or the similar situations in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]