Abstract: With the successful control of COVID-19 in China, the public’s perceived risk and vaccination intention have declined, posing a challenge to quickly establish an immune barrier. This study aimed to investigate the psychological, social, and media use factors that influences the COVID-19 vaccination intentions during the well-contained phase. A nationwide survey was conducted online among Chinese adults (N=1030)from April 1, 2021 to April 20, 2021 on the public’s vaccination intentions and possible influencing factors including perceived risks, benefits, barriers, and social norms, frequency of media usage and interaction, and demographic characteristics. The data were analyzed by PLS-SEM using SmartPLS software. The results show that vaccination intentions are generally high (85.6%), but there is a drop, and 37.9% of individuals will not be vaccinated immediately. Perceived social norms are the largest direct predictor, followed by perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and perceived risks. Media usage indirectly influences vaccination intention, and the effect of formal media is greater than that of social media. Media dependence is a moderator. If there is media dependence, the effect of formal media usage is significant while the effect of social media is not. If there is no media dependence, the opposite is true. These findings reveal how media usage and interaction, health and social norm beliefs predict vaccination intentions, providing insights into infectious health crisis communication and vaccination interventions.

Key words: COVID-19, Vaccination intention, Social norm, Health beliefs, Media usage, Information interaction, Media dependence, China