The relationship between information overload and state of anxiety in the period of regular epidemic prevention and control in China: a moderated multiple mediation model

This study aimed to examine the relationship between information overload and individual state anxiety in the period of regular epidemic prevention and control and mediating effect of risk perception and positive coping styles. Further, we explored the moderating role of resilience. 847 Chinese participated in and completed measures of information overload, risk perception, positive coping styles, state anxiety, and resilience. The results of the analysis showed that information overload significantly predicted the level of individual state anxiety (β = 0.27, p < 0.001). Risk perception partially mediate the relationship between information overload and state anxiety (B = 0.08, 95%CI = [0.05, 0.11]) and positive coping styles also partially mediate the relationship between information overload and state anxiety(B = -0.14, 95%CI = [-0.18, -0.10]). In addition, resilience moderated the mediating effects of risk perception (β = -0.07, p < 0.05) and positive coping styles (β = -0.19, p < 0.001). Resilience also moderated the effect of information overload on state anxiety (β = -0.13, p < 0.001). These results offer positive significance for understanding the internal mechanism of the influence of information overload on individual state anxiety in the epidemic environment and shed light on how to reduce people’s state anxiety during an epidemic.