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Coping behaviours and social panic in relation to the SARS epidemic

Benbo Zhang, Institute of social development
Erping Wahg, Chinese Academy of Science
Yiwen Chen, Chinese Academy of Science

Social consequence of epidemic was discussed in the paper on a psychological viewpoint. It’s not surprised that social panic aroused in epidemic emergency, which exerts great impact on individual health, and epidemic control in general. Individual behavior coping with epidemic is an acceptable indicator for panic. There were evidences that SARS caused social panic to some extend in China. Three round of surveys were conducted to investigate residents’ coping behaviors during SARS period. 2090 residents from four cities with different epidemic situations were interviewed. Through a cluster analysis on their attitudes on 19 preventive measures, the respondents were classified into three groups: suitable coping, over coping, and under coping group. Trend of social panic with spread of epidemic were discussed, which is believed to be helpful both for individuals to cope with crisis suitably, and for policy-makers to control the epidemic effectively.

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Presented in Poster Session 4