The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rapidly escalated to a global pandemic. To control the rate of transmission, governments advocated that the public practice social distancing, which included staying at home. However, compliance with stay-at-home orders has varied between countries such as China and the United States, and little is known about the mechanisms underlying the national differences. Based on the health belief model, the theory of reasoned action, and the technology acceptance model, health beliefs and behavioral intention are suggested as possible explanations. A total of 498 Chinese and 292 American college students were recruited to complete an online survey. The structural equation modeling results showed that health beliefs (i.e., perceived susceptibility, severity, and barriers) and behavioral intention played multiple mediating roles in the association between nationality and actual stay-at-home behaviors. Notably, the effect via perceived barriers → behavioral intention was stronger than the effects via perceived susceptibility and severity → behavioral intention. That is, American participants perceived high levels of susceptibility whereas Chinese participants perceived high levels of severity, especially few barriers, which further led to increased behavioral intention and more frequent stay-at-home behaviors. These findings not only facilitate a comprehensive understanding of cross-country differences in compliance with stay-at-home orders during peaks in the COVID-19 pandemic but also lend support for mitigation of the current global crisis and future disease prevention and health promotion efforts.

This longitudinal study examined the reciprocal relationship between parental active mediation, parent-child relationships, and children’s problematic mobile phone use (PMPU). A sample of 258 primary school students in Beijing, China, completed self-report questionnaires at three time points, with a one-semester interval (a six-month gap) between each measurement wave. The cross-lagged model test results revealed that parental active mediation may help reduce children’s PMPU, whereas the corresponding reverse path from PMPU to parental active mediation was nonsignificant. There was a reciprocal negative relationship between parent-child relationships and children’s PMPU. Parental active mediation had a positive effect on parent-child relationships, yet the corresponding reverse path from parent-child relationships to parental active mediation was nonsignificant. Overall, this study described a dynamic picture of children’s PMPU, suggesting both a parent-driven process and a child-driven process in the prediction of children’s PMPU. Our findings provide theoretical and practical implications to prevent or reduce children’s engagement in PMPU.

This study aimed to explore cross-country differences in the characteristics and determinations of self–other risk perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. We distinguished perceived risk to self from perceived risk to others and subdivided risk perceptions into three levels: personal, group, and societal. We focused on the differential impact of multiple communication channels (i.e., interpersonal communication, traditional media exposure, and new media exposure) on risk perceptions at the three levels. A sample of 790 college students completed self-report online questionnaires from May to June 2020, including 498 in China and 292 in the United States. The results showed an “ascending pattern,” revealing that participants perceived higher levels of risk to others than to themselves. In addition, U.S. college students perceived higher risks of COVID-19 than Chinese college students at all levels. As for the relations between communication and risk perceptions, the results revealed that interpersonal communication and traditional media exposure were more effective with Chinese participants, whereas new media exposure was more effective with U.S. participants. Specifically, interpersonal communication was positively associated with risk perceptions at three levels, and the magnitude of the effect was higher in the Chinese group than in the U.S. group. Traditional media exposure increased societal risk perception only for Chinese college students, and new media exposure increased societal risk perception only for U.S. college students. Our findings provide theoretical implications for the characteristics and forming mechanisms of risk perceptions and also provide practical implications for policymakers in the two countries to implement effective measures to foster individuals’ risk perceptions in relation to preventive behaviors.

Kaplan and Norton (2001) presented their Balanced Scorecard (BSC) for the measurement of corporate performance and the setting of measures for employees' performance and adaptation to fit into corporate dynamism. Studies show that when a leader is unable to raise his/her followers' level of commitment to change to the organisational BSC approach, the corporation will have difficulty in achieving its mission. The commitment to change to the BSC approach provides for long-run growth and healthy business performance. This study was designed to empirically examine the effect of both mediated and moderated relations for the transformational leadership process on the followers' level of commitment to change to the organisational BSC approach. The results of the findings indicated that: there was a positive association between the transformational leader's people-oriented behaviour and the followers' level of trust, but a negative relationship between the followers' level of trust and their commitment to change to the BSC approach; the level of trust mediated the association between the leader's transformational task- and people-oriented behaviour and the followers' level of commitment to change to the organisational BSC approach. The findings suggest that the followers' attitude towards the leader, such as their level of general satisfaction, should be identified as a moderating effect/contingency approach.