Examining the Mediating Effects of Stress on Fear of COVID-19 and Well-being Using Structural Equation Modeling

Abstract

This study focuses on the effects of fear factor due to COVID-19 on stress and well-being of college students in India. The authors conducted a cross-sectional survey among 625 Indian students across various Indian universities and structural equation modeling (SEM) has been performed for analyzing the data. The findings of the study show a positive effect of fear of COVID-19 on stress with β = .27, p < 0.05, and a negative effect on well-being (β = −.13, p < 0.05). The results also depicted the mediating role of stress between fear of COVID-19 and well-being. Therefore, it is suggested that measures must be taken by individuals, society, and policy makers to include mental health maintenance in the pandemic response activities. Further longitudinal studies in different geographical regions and demographics can provide a more generalized understanding of the relationship between the pandemic and mental health. The limitations, policy implications, and suggestions are discussed.Keywords The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has raised numerous concerns in public health (Heymann & Shindo, 2020) in recent times. Besides fear of infection, mental health concerns among the public have also increased all over the world (Holmes et al., 2020). The COVID-19 scenario has resulted in an increased level of psychiatric issues such as stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, insomnia, denial, anger, fear and, in the worst case, suicide (Torales et al., 2020).

Fear of COVID-19 and its association with mental health-related factors: systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Therefore, future studies using longitudinal designs are warranted to provide additional evidence in more rigorously exploring the causal relationships between fear of COVID-19 and other mental health-related factors. Third, although the present systematic review and meta-analysis analysed 91 studies, only three of them 46,118,126 assessed the associations between fear of COVID-19 and mental well-being. Therefore, further studies are needed to corroborate the evidence regarding the association between fear of COVID-19 and mental well-being.…”

The Relationship Between Fear of COVID-19 and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress

“…For example, according to Servidio et al (2021) relationship between fear of COVID-19 and depression and anxiety was .17 and .28, respectively and whereas other research revealed the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and depression was .56 and anxiety was .71 (Alyami et al, 2020; Tsipropoulou et al, 2020). Also, Lathabhavan and Vispute (2021) found a moderate relationship between fear of COVID-19 and stress. Yet, some researchers found a relationship between fear of COVID-19 and stress was strong (Bakioğlu et al., 2020; Midorikawa et al., 2021).…”

COVID-19-related stress in postpartum women from Argentina during the second wave in 2021: Identification of impairing and protective factors

“…In accordance with our results, previous studies have demonstrated that peripartum women experiencing fear of contracting COVID-19 or that a loved one would become infected was associated with higher stress ( Kumari et al, 2021 ; Puertas-Gonzalez et al, 2021 ). Currently, the construct "fear of COVID-19" has been introduced in the study of mental health, being related to various psychological outcomes such as stress and negative well-being ( Lathabhavan & Vispute, 2021 ). Furthermore, we found that negative change in mood and happiness were associated with increased stress.…”