Confinement Situation of the Spanish Population during the Health Crisis of COVID-19: Resilience Mediation Process in the Relationship of Dispositional Optimism and Psychological Well-Being

Abstract

The pandemic generated by COVID-19 is one of the most complex challenges humanity has faced in recent years. This study aims to explore the levels of dispositional optimism, resilience and psychological well-being in the sociodemographic and economic situation produced during the state of alarm and to investigate the resilience mediation between optimism and psychological well-being. The sample included 566 volunteers from Spain (73.5% women; M = 40.2 years, SD = 12.8). An ad hoc questionnaire was applied to request socioeconomic data and dispositional optimism (LOT-R). Resilience and psychological well-being were, respectively, evaluated by the Ryff scale and the Wagnild and Young scale. The results show that older and people with higher educational levels are more optimistic and have better psychological well-being. Well-being is also greater in married, divorced and widowed people and in those who have lived in outdoor spaces. However, those with spaced housing were more optimistic. Finally, it was found that the most optimistic people have better psychological well-being and that this is increased by the mediation process exercised by the ability to overcome adversity, provided age and educational level are controlled. It can be concluded that the design of preventive programs focused on improving strengths, positive emotions and skills in the population would be convenient to protect mental health.

Optimism and Life Satisfaction of Poles during the Second and Fourth Waves of the COVID-19 pandemic

“…38 When it comes to the relationship between demographic characteristics and the variables studied, analyses showed that older people scored higher, while adolescents and students showed lower levels of optimism and life satisfaction, confirming previous research. 39 Bozkurt and Aytaç 40 argue that the relationship between age and life satisfaction, which was U-shaped before the pandemic, changed after the epidemic, with the group most affected by the reduction in life satisfaction being those under 25 years of age. Gender is also an important variable that differentiates the experience of optimism and life satisfaction.…”

Exploring the Role of Resilience and Optimism during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Older European Adults

“… Demetriou et al (2021) found that hopefulness, together with age and educational attainment, significantly predicted psychological resilience and willingness and capacity to adapt to COVID-19 measures during the early stages of the pandemic in a sample of Greek and Cypriot adults. Zayas et al (2021) found that dispositional optimism was significantly associated with the psychological well-being of Spanish adults, and this association was mediated by resilience. This might suggest that optimism is an antecedent of resilience.…”

Promotion of Resilience and Emotional Self-Care in Families and Health Professionals in Times of COVID-19

“…A study by Zayas et al ( 2021 ) points to the need for interventions to promote resilience for the general population in times of pandemic, alluding to the study on the preliminary analyzes of the “Resilience and Well-being Programme: Stay at Home” (Sánchez-Hernández and Canales, 2020a , b ), which is a psycho-educational intervention applied in confinement and de-escalation of the first wave of the pandemic in Spain, to promote well-being and prevent emotional problems (see Table 1 ). The sample consisted of 259 participants, 68.3% women and 31.7% men, with a mean age of 39.33 years (SD = 14.3).…”