Not all areas are alike: willingness to comply with pandemic containment measures across residential contexts in China.

INTRODUCTION: Public compliance with containment measures is important for effective pandemic governance, but willingness to comply may vary across residential contexts. This study examined compliance willingness with COVID-19 containment measures across rural, town, and urban areas in China and the factors associated with it within each setting. METHODS: Using cross-sectional survey data from 985 respondents across three northern provinces of China, we compared compliance willingness across residential contexts using nonparametric tests. We also estimated hierarchical block-entry OLS regression models for the three subgroups and conducted pooled residence-by-predictor interaction tests to assess contextual heterogeneity formally. RESULTS: Compliance willingness differed significantly across settings. Rural respondents reported higher willingness than town and urban respondents, although the absolute differences were modest. The subgroup models showed different within-context patterns of association, with government performance positively associated with compliance willingness in all three settings. Formal interaction tests indicated that between-context heterogeneity was concentrated in the institutional domain and specifically in the association between institutional trust and compliance willingness. CONCLUSION: The findings reveal selective heterogeneity in compliance willingness across residential contexts, particularly in the role of institutional trust.