Emotions and Coping: “What I Feel about It, Gives Me More Strategies to Deal with It?”

Abstract

Background: Personal emotions and affects have been identified and studied in the context of pandemics, as well as coping strategies centered on emotional regulation or the balance between positive and negative emotions. Objectives: The objectives of this paper are to identify an emotion and affect structure in our sample and analyze the relationship of these dimensions with resilient coping in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: This study employed a cross-sectional design that involved a non-probabilistic sample with 598 participants over the age of 18, with 51.1% being female, and an average age of 40.73 years. First, the emotional structure was identified through principal component analysis (PCA). Secondly, a linear regression analysis was performed to investigate emotional dimensions as predictors of coping. Results: A valid and reliable emotional structure with four dimensions was identified. The regression model revealed that coping is positively associated with the active and positive dimension and negatively correlated with the negative and moral dimensions. Conclusions: Emotional dimensions are predictors of coping, with moral and negative dimensions having a negative effect, while active and positive dimensions have a positive effect. When designing interventions for coping strategies, multiple dimensions of emotions and affective states in people who are in vulnerable situations must be considered.