Abstract
BACKGROUND: People experienced significant disruptions in their daily lives due to COVID-19, leading to pandemic fatigue, however the underlying mechanisms have rarely been investigated. This study explored the relationship between COVID-19's disruptions to daily life and pandemic fatigue by examining the potential role of perceived stress and perceived social support. METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey via the Wenjuanxing online platform using a convenience sampling approach was conducted from April to May 2022 in Shanghai Municipality, Jiangsu Province, and Zhejiang Province, China. Of the 2112 initial participants, 88 invalid questionnaires were excluded due to missing key variables or logical errors, yielding 2024 valid samples included (efficiency rate of 95.8%). Moderated mediation analysis was carried out applying Hayes' PROCESS macro. RESULTS: COVID-19's disruptions to daily life was positively associated with pandemic fatigue (β = 0.319, p < 0.001), while perceived stress partially mediated this relationship (β = 0.107, 95% CI = [0.088, 0.128]), accounting for 33.5% of the total effect. Perceived social support moderated the direct effect of COVID-19's disruptions on pandemic fatigue (β= -0.113, p < 0.001) and the indirect effect of perceived stress by buffering its effect on pandemic fatigue (β= -0.102, p < 0.001), thus the moderated mediation effect was established. CONCLUSION: This study revealed a plausible mechanism that explains pandemic fatigue during the COVID-19 through understanding the role of perceived stress and social support, providing theoretical and practical inputs for formulating intervention strategies.