No abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of healthcare workers and their professional quality of life. This quantitative cross-sectional study aims at exploring the professional quality of life, work engagement, and self-care of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador. A convenience sample of 117 participants completed an online voluntary and anonymous survey between April and July 2020. It contained a sociodemographic section, the Professional Quality of Life questionnaire V, the work engagement scale, and the scale of self-care behaviors for clinical psychologists. Results show that healthcare workers have an average quality of life with high levels of compassion satisfaction and average levels of compassion fatigue and burnout. Data also indicate that the sample frequently engaged in self-care practices and had high levels of work engagement. The regression analyses reveal that gender, the number of patients per week, the perceived fairness of the salary, among other variables are possible predictors of professional quality of life, frequency of self-care practices, and engagement. This study contributes to the understanding of these variables among healthcare professionals in Ecuador. These results should be considered when planning policies and prevention intervention efforts to promote professionals’ wellbeing.

Empathy plays a fundamental role in health related occupations. In this study, we analysed empathy levels in professionals (117) and students (170) from various healthcare fields in Ecuador during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index was used in an online survey. The results show high levels of empathy in both groups, influenced by age and gender. The students presented higher levels of personal distress, and their age was negatively correlated to empathy. Additionally, professionals working in physical health scored higher levels of personal distress compared to those in the field of emotional health. COVID-19 has placed social health systems in great stress. Despite this, the personal capacities for empathy of both students and health professionals have not been diminished.

Since 1997, Ecuador has undergone a series of changes to ensure family rights to sexual minorities. However, there is still limited research regarding attitudes toward them. This study focused on the attitudes toward lesbians (L), gay men (G), and their rights. A sample of 318 cisgender Ecuadorians who responded to an online survey was recruited. Analyses indicated that men, heterosexuals, who practice their religion, attend more frequently to religious services, and identify as conservative showed higher levels of prejudice against LG as well as less support toward their rights. Further, participants who did not have LG acquaintances, friends, family members, and those who did not know any LG parented family showed less support toward these populations. Multiple regression analyses indicated that believing that a person's sexual orientation is learned significantly predicted the attitudes measured in our study. Implications of these findings to help reduce prejudice against LG individuals are discussed.

Procrastination involves voluntarily or habitually delaying unpleasant tasks for later. It is characterized by short-term benefits and long-term costs. The COVID-19 pandemic set specific circumstances that may have influenced procrastination behavior. This scoping review identified the existing peer-reviewed literature in English or Spanish about procrastination during the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2020 to April 2021) in six electronic databases. To conduct the review, a five-step methodological framework, as well as established PRISMA guidelines, was followed. A total of 101 articles were found. After removing duplicates and reviewing the articles, only 13 were included in the review. Findings indicate that procrastination was studied mostly in academic contexts in various parts of the globe. Procrastination behavior was related to anxiety, distress, time management, self-control, and other variables. There is limited information about interventions to prevent or decrease procrastinating behaviors in the context of confinement or in the living conditions generated by the pandemic. Future research should consider how procrastination evolved during the pandemic using longitudinal methodologies. Individual differences related to procrastination also should be identified, and the evaluation of the efficacy of existing interventions is still needed. This information might help in the creation of appropriate interventions that target detrimental procrastination behaviors.

Background: The current mental health state of healthcare professionals and students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador remains understudied and how to improve their mental health is a challenge.Objective: This study aimed to explore the anxiety and depressive symptomatology among healthcare students and professionals in Ecuador and to examine the role of psychological inflexibility, loneliness, and psychological stress as predictors of anxiety and depression symptoms.Methods: A total of 191 undergraduate and graduate healthcare students in clinical practice (early-career healthcare professionals) in Ecuador were surveyed between January and March 2021 using standardized measures of psychological stress (PSS), psychological inflexibility (AAQ), loneliness (UCLA), alcohol consumption (AUDIT-C), and anxiety and depressive symptomatology (PHQ). Macro Process for SPSS (models 4 and 7) were used to test mediation effects.Results: Alcohol consumption varied between men and women and anxiety and depression symptomatology was generally low among the sample. Psychological inflexibility and loneliness mediated the impact of stress on anxiety and depressive mood in participants, regardless of gender and previous personal history of COVID-19.Discussion: Implications of psychological inflexibility and the prevention and coping with stress in healthcare professionals during COVID-19 are further discussed.

Objective: Several studies have investigated the negative toll the pandemic has had on people’s mental health. However, there is limited research on the pandemic’s effect on positive mental health variables. This article reports on the levels of self-esteem and well-being (flourishing and happiness) in a sample of adults living in Ecuador and their relationships with the characteristics of their personal situation and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic had on their personal lives.Methods: A total of 766 adults completed an anonymous online survey between March and August 2020.Results: Participants reported average scores in the flourishing scale, the majority considered themselves to be happy or very happy people, and more than half presented high levels of self-esteem. Age, education, socioeconomic status, time spent using mobile phones and on hobbies, among others, explained self-esteem, happiness, and flourishing.Conclusion: The relationships between sociodemographic and situational variables of confinement during the pandemic are discussed, as well as the possible predictors of happiness, flourishing, and self-esteem.

Objetivo: Describir el estado de la salud mental de los adultos ecuatorianos durante la pandemia por COVID-19 de marzo a agosto de 2020. Para este fin, se analizaron los datos de un estudio más amplio que involucró varios países hispanohablantes. La investigación tuvo un diseño no experimental, cuantitativo, transversal de tipo descriptivo donde se aplicó una encuesta anónima en línea. Resultados: En total participaron 766 personas, 64.23% fueron mujeres y la edad media fue de 32.35 (DT = 12.54). Alrededor del 8% de los participantes declararon haber tenido diagnóstico de COVID-19 y un 12.9% haber experimentado síntomas relacionados. La mayor parte de los participantes (77.4%) indicaron no haber tenido problemas de salud mental en el pasado y el 87.6% no tener estos problemas durante la pandemia. Sin embargo, el 41% reconoció tener mayor malestar psicológico. Los participantes presentaron niveles bajos de síntomas (depresión, ansiedad y estrés). Las mujeres y los adultos jóvenes fueron los grupos más afectados por los síntomas evaluados. Conclusiones: En situaciones de confinamiento y pandemia es necesaria la atención de la salud mental de la población general y, en especial, la de las mujeres y los adultos jóvenes.