Resilience and Prosocial Behavior Among Chinese University Students During COVID-19 Mitigation: Testing Mediation and Moderation Models of Social Support

Shuang Xue,1,2 Michelle R Kaufman,3 Xing Zhang,4 Shunan Xia,5 Chengcheng Niu,6 Rui Zhou,7 Wenjian Xu1,2 1Department of Sociology & Psychology, School of Public Administration, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China; 2Institute of Psychology, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China; 3Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; 4School of Psychology, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, People’s Republic of China; 5School of Social Development and Public Policy, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 6Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China; 7College of Marxism, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Wenjian Xu; Rui Zhou, Email xuwenjian@scu.edu.cn; ruizhou_283@163.comPurpose: Suffering during events such as the COVID-19 pandemic threatens university students’ physical and psychological health. Given the literature indicating the protective role of resilience and social support, the current study explored the mediating and moderating roles of social support in the association between resilience and prosocial behavior among university students in mainland China during COVID-19 mitigation.Methods: We conducted an online survey using convenience sampling from 23rd February to 3rd March 2020 among Chinese university students who had encountered home-quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Self-report scales were used to measure levels of resilience (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale), social support (the Social Support Scale), and prosocial behavior (Prosocial Tendencies Measure). A total of 313 university students participated in this online survey. Hayes PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to test the hypothesized mediating and moderating effects of social support in the relationship between resilience and prosocial behavior.Results: Pearson’s correlations analysis showed that all outcomes of in