Housing inequality and psychological resilience among youth Chinese during a pandemic: The influence of community resilience and governance efficacy

Research on the impact of residential inequality on individual mental health has highlighted community differences, and it is worth investigating whether pandemics exacerbate the mental health issues caused by this inequality. By introducing a community resilience measurement model from crisis management, this paper refines the measurement of community differences, focusing on whether the global COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the mental health disparities caused by residential inequality at the community level. This study employed the Conjoint Community Resilience Assessment Measure-10 (CCRAM-10) and used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyze 4469 questionnaires collected during the pandemic from 31 provinces in China. The subjects were young people under the age of 35 living in various communities. Using the community resilience measurement model, the results revealed that there is inequality in community resilience and its support for individual psychological resilience among Chinese communities. SEM results indicated that both the direct impact of community resilience perception and the mediating role of governance efficacy significantly enhanced the psychological resilience of residents. In the subgroup analysis, the direct effect of community resilience was most significant in commercial housing communities. The indirect effect of governance efficacy was strongest in older urban communities. Commercial housing communities effectively supported individual psychological resilience through their strong community resilience. Rural communities and urban villages in China highlighted the vulnerability of residential inequality during the pandemic. The government should improve public services and community participation in these areas to better address the challenges posed by the pandemic.