Author(s):
Chong, Yuen Yu ; Chien, Wai Tong ; Cheng, Ho Yu ; Lamnisos, Demetris ; Ļubenko, Jeļena ; Presti, Giovambattista ; Squatrito, Valeria ; Constantinou, Marios ; Nicolaou, Christiana ; Papacostas, Savvas ; Aydın, Gökçen ; Ruiz, Francisco J. ; Garcia Lopez, Maria ; Obando-Posada, Diana P. ; Segura-Vargas, Miguel A. ; Vasiliou, Vasilis S. ; McHugh, Louise Anita ; Höfer, Stefan ; Baban, Adriana ; Neto, David Dias ; Silva, Ana Nunes da ; Monestes, Jean-Louis ; Alvarez-Galvez, Javier ; Paez Blarrina, Marisa ; Montesinos, Francisco ; Salas, Sonsoles Valdivia ; Őri, Dorottya ; Kleszcz, Bartosz ; Lappalainen, Raimo ; Ivanović, Iva ; Gosar, David ; Dionne, Frederick ; Merwin, Rhonda M. ; Gloster, Andrew T. ; Karekla, Maria ; Kassianos, Angelos P.
Date: 2021
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.12/8072
Origin: Repositório do ISPA - Instituto Universitário
Subject(s): COVID-19; Psychological flexibility; Mental health; Prosociality; Survey
Description
This study aimed to compare the mediation of psychological flexibility, prosociality and coping in the impacts of illness perceptions toward COVID-19 on mental health among seven regions. Convenience sampled online survey was conducted between April and June 2020 from 9130 citizens in 21 countries. Illness perceptions toward COVID-19, psychological flexibility, prosociality, coping and mental health, socio-demographics, lockdown-related variables and COVID-19 status were assessed. Results showed that psychological flexibility was the only significant mediator in the relationship between illness perceptions toward COVID-19 and mental health across all regions (all ps = 0.001–0.021). Seeking social support was the significant mediator across subgroups (all ps range = <0.001–0.005) except from the Hong Kong sample (p = 0.06) and the North and South American sample (p = 0.53). No mediation was found for problem-solving (except from the Northern European sample, p = 0.009). Prosociality was the significant mediator in the Hong Kong sample (p =0.016) and the Eastern European sample (p = 0.008). These findings indicate that fostering psychological flexibility may help to mitigate the adverse mental impacts of COVID-19 across regions. Roles of seeking social support, problem-solving and prosociality vary across regions.
