COVID-19: Trauma, Resilience and Posttraumatic Reconnection - A Mixed Method Study in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted people's mental health around the globe. Symptoms of trauma have increased drastically due to a perceived lack of control over the COVID-19 crisis, expectations of death or infection, and constant exposure to traumatic news. Resilience is defined as a person's use of coping skills to cope with traumatic events. The present research aimed to investigate the impact of resilience on COVID-19 trauma. An explanatory sequential design with mixed methods and two phases of research was employed.The first phase involved the use of the Arabic version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) to measure resilience among adults. The total sample size was 778 participants. T tests and correlation analysis were used to analyze the participants' questionnaire responses. The results showed a significant difference in resilience between male and female participants. Additionally, educational level and familial support were correlated with resilience.The second phase involved the administration of openended questions to gather in-depth information from 17 participants who answered the CD-RISC. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used in the coding process to analyze the qualitative data. The findings indicated that the COVID-19 crisis increased trauma symptoms and that participants exhibited cognitive, emotional, and behavioral resilience in coping with the pandemic. Moreover, a significant finding was that participants engaged in posttraumatic reconnection that emphasized reconnection with the self and others.

It’s all not negative: a cross-section study on the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic on Iranian population

“…Post-traumatic reconnection with the self includes thinking about the self and accepting situations that cannot be changed. It focuses on the ability to continue living and remember the traumatic incident as a memory from which we learn lessons rather than trying to repress those memories and reject connections with emotions that lead to the development of severe mental health issues [30].…”