National governance capacity refers to the proficiency in effectively managing all aspects of social affairs through the utilization of national institutions (2). The prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic served as a significant litmus test for assessing the current national governance capacity, including crisis response capabilities, resource mobilization prowess, information dissemination capabilities, and efficacy in implementing preventive measures (3, 4).

According to the social cognition theory, social cognition pertains to an individual’s perception, cognitive processes, and comprehension of others as well as their social environment during the process of social interaction (5, 6). Young college students’ recognition of national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities is a tangible manifestation of their social cognition in practical societal engagement. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a plethora of information proliferated across various online and offline platforms, making it arduous to discern veracity from falsehood (6). Consequently, certain inflammatory assertions inevitably arose and were directed toward the government. Young college students constitute the most proactive demographic in information acquisition. The potential impact of these inflammatory remarks on college students’ social cognition should not be underestimated. Studies have showed that an individual’s cognition of social phenomena significantly influences their sense of identity and belonging to society and the nation (7). During the prevention and control of COVID-19, the government’s dissemination of accurate and timely information played a pivotal role in effective communication, facilitating college students and all sectors of society to gain a comprehensive understanding of the current situation, as well as the array of emergency plans and prevention strategies implemented by the authorities (8, 9). This measure has gradually enhanced college students’ recognition of their contribution to national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities. Following major public emergencies, the cognition of government emergency management ability and the level of social governance may exert a profound influence on emotional identification among college students (10). Young college students perceived that the inefficiency of government emergency management undermined their self-confidence and national pride, thereby eroding their national identity. On the contrary, the government’s efficient emergency management and social governance can effectively cater to young college student’s sense of collective superiority, thereby further enhancing their national identity (11). Hence, the young college students’ recognition of national crisis governance capabilities serves as a crucial foundation for enhancing national identity. Nevertheless, the internal mechanism between young college students’ recognition of national crisis governance capabilities and their national identity remains to be further verified.

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, characterized by widespread implementation of social distancing measures, quarantine protocols, and isolation practices, social media has emerged as a considerable communication channel facilitating the reception and exchange of health-related information among individuals (12). During this special period, there has been a notable surge in social media usage across various demographics, with young college students emerging as the most actively engaged and frequently interacting group of readers (13).

Based on predict behavior and behavior change theory, social cognition has made important contributions in identifying determinants of health behavior and elucidating the underlying mechanisms involved (14). Young college students participated in activities related to major public health events through social media, and the change and adoption of these behaviors were promoted by cognitive activities such as risk perception and government crisis governance capabilities cognition (15). It was precisely because the government was fully aware of the significance of this aspect. Therefore, it strategically employed diverse online platforms to disseminate information and provide services, enabling young college students to fully comprehend the current epidemic prevention and control dynamics in a timely and effective manner, thereby potentially improving their recognition of national crisis governance capabilities (9, 16, 17). Building upon the recognition of national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities, young college students exhibited a high level of acceptance toward policies and measures for COVID-19 prevention and control. Consequently, they channeled their enthusiasm into actively participating in online public health initiatives through various social media platforms. Online public health activities included following and disseminating epidemic-related information (such as policy issuance, crisis response measures, etc.), actively participating in anti-epidemic initiatives (including rescue operations, charity fundraising activities, etc.), and expressing individual opinions (such as discussing and sharing preventive measures with their relatives or friends) (18–20). From the perspective of reciprocal influences, the frequent utilization of social media had stimulated their active participation in public health critical events, while the process of discussion and interaction on social media had enhanced their recognition of national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities. It can be inferred that the young college students’ recognition of national crisis governance capabilities may enhance their online participation in public health critical events, and these two factors may mutually influence each other.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, online participation in public health critical events through social media had emerged as an important social activity. For instance, during the first half of 2020, the topic of mask-wearing had garnered extensive attention across various social media platforms. Young college students, serving as the primary driving force, actively participated in this process by using social media platforms to disseminate information regarding mask-wearing interventions through frequent posting, liking, commenting, reposting, and using hashtags to share their personal perspectives and experiences (20). In this way, they not only conveyed their individual attitudes and behaviors regarding mask-wearing but also fostered greater user engagement in discussions, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of publicity and educational initiatives. Moreover, young college students could utilize their professional expertise and competencies to provide assistance in various areas such as data entry, logistics support, remote education (18).

According to the emotions theory, emotions serve a clear evaluative function, expressing the association between recent events or outcomes and individual values (21). When individuals encountered unknown major public health events, their emotions often tended to be predominantly negative, thereby hindering the accurate assessment of the overall event. The social cognitive development of young college students was not flawless, and the impact of emotions on their social behavior and values should not be ignored. It could be reasonably inferred that the emotional response of college students to anti-epidemic behaviors was associated with their national identity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, effective and timely channeling of negative emotions among college students, coupled with their active engagement in anti-epidemic activities, could significantly enhance the efficacy of fostering a strong national identity. Scholars have confirmed this point that young college students exhibit a powerful sense of mission and strong sense of responsibility in anti-epidemic endeavors, thereby effectively stimulating their fervent patriotism, collective consciousness, and nationalistic pride (22). This further provided substantial material for their education in national identity. The more actively college students participated in epidemic prevention, the stronger their national identity became (11). Meanwhile, active participation in this process cultivated a sense of honor within individuals, leading to a profound recognition of the rights and privileges bestowed upon them as citizens. Consequently, it motivated them to steadfastly safeguard national interests and promote social stability. Therefore, facilitating the active participation of young college students in public health critical events through online platforms may be an important strategy for enhancing national identity.

Based on these theoretical models and previous empirical evidence, online participation in public health critical events may serve as a potential mechanism for young college students to effectively recognize the national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities and improve their national identity. Therefore, we pose the following hypotheses:

The above hypotheses are described in Figure 1.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in three universities in Hunan Province of China from March 15 to April 19, 2020. Inclusion criteria were: (1) freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, and fifth year college students, (2) voluntarily participated in this online survey through the Wenjuanxing platform, and (3) provided informed consent. Exclusion criteria included participants who withdrew from the study without completing the questionnaire in its entirety. Demographic information in the self-report questionnaire included age, gender, nationality, university, residences, grade level, majors, etc. A total of 3,334 college students from three universities were enrolled in the study. The total response rate was 100%, including 3,041 valid questionnaires, with an effective rate of 91.2%. All participants provided informed consent before completing the questionnaire, and each participant was paid a total of 7 yuan ($1).

College students’ recognition of national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities (RNCCC) was evaluated using eight items. Item 1: Do you think the national government has implemented bold and decisive measures? Item 2: Do you think state leaders attach great importance to the prevention and control of the epidemic? Item 3: Do you think the national government effectively organizes medical personnel to carry out the rescue? Item 4: Do you think the local government has implemented bold and decisive measures? Item 5: Do you think the state strongly publicizes knowledge of epidemic prevention and control through various media channels? Item 6: Do you think people all across the country have united to fight the epidemic? Item 7: Are you staying at home or reducing going out? Item 8: Do you think what is good for the country has been beneficial to you? Students responded were either “yes” (scored 1 point) or “no” (scored 0). All subjects could choose either “yes” or “no” based on their actual situation. The total score of this questionnaire is the sum of the scores for each item. Higher scores reflect a higher level of recognition among students regarding the national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities. The questionnaire was developed by the research team based on their knowledge, combined with literature research, expert consultation, and survey tools (23–27). Cronbach’s alpha value of the scale was 0.807.

College students’ online participation in public health critical events (OPPHCE) was assessed using seven items. Item 1: I support and abide by the policies and measures taken by the national government online to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic. Item 2: I support and abide by the policies and measures taken by my local government online to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic. Item 3: I always follow the progress of the epidemic through online media. Item 4: I disseminate COVID-19 prevention knowledge through various internet platforms such as microblogs, Wechat, client, etc. Item 5: I discuss COVID-19 with friends and relatives online. Item 6: I take the initiative to participate in volunteer activities or serve as a staff member in charitable donation activities, such as transporting surgical masks, isolation devices, or food donated by the public to the epidemic area. Item 7: I support medical workers in conducting online epidemic prevention and control work. Each item is assessed using a 4-point scale. All subjects could choose the most suitable statement based on their actual situation. The highest score is 4 for “I participate in it every day” and the lowest score is 1 for “not relevant to me at all.” The total score is the sum of the scores for each item. Higher scores reflect a higher degree of online participation in public health critical events. The questionnaire was compiled by the research team based on their knowledge, combined with literature research, expert consultation, and survey tools (28–32). Cronbach’s alpha value of the scale was 0.921.

Seven items were used to assess the improvement of young college students’ national identity (INI). Item 1: Did your national identity improve when you participated in the COVID 19 response through online media? Item 2: Did your sense of national pride enhance when you participated in the COVID-19 response through online media? Item 3: Did your national safety awareness increase when you participated in the COVID-19 response through online media? Item 4: Has your patriotism been strengthened by participating in the COVID-19 response through online media? Item 5: Has your collective spirits been heightened by participating in the COVID-19 response through online media? Item 6: Have you shown your solidarity and friendship by participating in the COVID-19 response through online media? Item 7: Has your trust in medical staff been enhanced by participating in the COVID-19 response through online media? Each item was assessed using a 5-point scale. All subjects could choose the most suitable statement based on their actual situation. The highest score is 5 for “the most improvement,” and the lowest score is 1 for “decline.” The total score is the sum of the scores for each item. Higher scores reflect an improvement in students’ national identity. The questionnaire was compiled by the research team based on their knowledge, combined with literature research, expert consultation, and survey tools (33–35). Cronbach’s alpha value of the scale was 0.962.

All data were managed and analyzed using statistical packages for the social sciences software (SPSS, version 26.0) and Excel (Microsoft Corp, Redmond, WA, United States). Descriptive statistics were applied to analyze the demographic data and all study variables. The correlations between study variables were analyzed using Spearman’s rank correlation. The mediation model was tested using PROCESS Model 4 with 5,000 bootstrap samples in SPSS. The bias-corrected bootstrap method provided statistical efficacy and identification interval estimation. College students’ recognition of national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities was used as an independent variable, online participation in public health critical events was used as a mediate variable, and improvement of national identity was used as a dependent variable. The direct, indirect and total effects of the mediation model were considered to be statistically significant at the 0.05 probability level if the results with 95% bias-corrected identification interval (CI) did not include zero (36).

A total of 3,334 college students participated in the study, of which 3,041 participants responded completely, resulting in a valid response rate of 91.2% (3041/3334). The mean age of the students was 19.06 ± 2.50 years. Among the surveyed college students, 51.3% were female, 85.7% were of Han nationality, and 25.4% lived in the cities (Table 1).

The descriptive statistics for college students’ recognition of national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities, improvement of national identity, and online participation in public health critical events are shown in Table 2. The average score for college students’ recognition of national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities was 0.83 ± 0.34, and the score for the item “staying at home or reducing going out” was the highest. The average score for improvement of national identity was 4.13 ± 1.05, and the score for the item “sense of national pride enhance during participated in the COVID-19 response through online media” was the highest. The average score for online participation in public health critical events was 3.08 ± 0.73, and the score for the item “follow the progress of the epidemic through news reports” was the highest.

The construct reliability and validity of the measurement model were considered satisfactory (Table 3). According to Hair et al., the indicator loadings should reach a standard value of 0.70. Loadings between 0.40 and 0.70 should only be removed if their removal can improve the overall reliability to a minimum threshold (37). There were four indicator loadings ranging from 0.62 to 0.69, and the remaining indicator loadings exceeded 0.70. The removal and analysis of indicators with loadings less than 0.70 did not improve overall reliability. Therefore, all indicators were retained for this study. The results showed that the indicator loadings exhibited satisfactory levels of indicator reliability.

Bivariate correlations were analyzed using Spearman’s rank correlation method, as shown in Table 4. All study variables were significantly correlated with each other. Improvement of college students’ national identity was positively correlated with college students’ recognition of national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities (r = 0.729, p < 0.001), and their online participation in public health critical events (r = 0.609, p < 0.001).

College students’ online participation in public health critical events was identified as a mediator between the recognition of national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities and the improvement of national identity. Model 4 from PROCESS analysis was used to evaluate the mediation effect of the study variables. The structural model was statistically significant (F = 272.793, p < 0.001), and the R and R² values were 0.390 and 0.152, respectively (Table 5). The positive direct effect of the college students’ recognition of national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities on the improvement of national identity was 0.622 (p < 0.001). The positive indirect effect of the college students’ recognition of national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities (X) on the improvement of national identity (Y) through online participation in public health critical events (M) was 0.196 (p < 0.001), so the mediating effect of online participation in public health critical events was partial. The total effect of college students’ recognition of national COVID-19 crisis governance capabilities (X) on the improvement of national identity (Y) was 0.818 (p < 0.001). The results of direct effect, indirect effect and total effect are shown in Table 6. The mediation effect accounted for 24.0% of the total effect. The mediation effect accounted for 31.5% of the direct effect. Therefore, these results suggested that there was a partial mediating effect. Figure 2 shows the mediating effect structure model.

This study first confirmed the research hypothesis that online participation in public health critical events could mediate the relationship between the college students’ recognition of national crisis governance capabilities and the improvement of their national identity. This study has a large sample size, ensuring strong representativeness and reliable results. These findings contribute to the advancement of theory and practice in national identity education among young college students.

Our study has three limitations. Firstly, this study employed college students’ self-reports to assess improvements in their national identity, potentially introducing response bias. Secondly, college students’ national identity was the result of the interaction of many factors. We only considered their online participation in public health critical events as a mediating factor. Finally, since mediating effects imply causation, the utilization of cross-sectional data for in-depth verification of mediating effects may not yield sufficiently convincing results. Therefore, it is imperative to conduct a longitudinal study to verify the mediating effect and further investigate the impact of individual, social, and other factors on predicting college students’ national identity. Besides, further research is required to determine their relevance and role in other types of public health critical events.