Fear of COVID-19, loneliness, smartphone addiction, and mental wellbeing among the Turkish general population: a serial mediation model

Abstract

The novel coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become a major health problem worldwide. The impact of COVID-19 has also been associated with psychological and social problems. The main objective of the present study was to examine the associations between fear of COVID-19 and mental wellbeing, through a serial mediation analysis that included loneliness and smartphone addiction. Utilising convenience sampling from 73 of 81 cities in Turkey via the web-based survey the present study comprised 773 participants (556 females and 217 males; aged between 18 and 66 years) were collected. Self-report data were collected including psychometric measures assessing fear of COVID-19, loneliness, smartphone addiction, and mental wellbeing. Fear of COVID-19 was found to have both a direct and indirect effect on mental wellbeing. In addition, results supported a serial mediation model where fear of COVID-19 was found to influence mental wellbeing via loneliness and smartphone addiction in a sequential manner. The findings suggest that higher fear of COVID-19 is associated with lower mental wellbeing by negatively affecting individuals' emotion and behaviour.

The Mental Well-Being of Health Care Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Likewise, people can feel alone due to isolation that can cause emotional problems for few individuals. 51 According to this theoretical background, the present study argues that exposure to COVID-19 due to job and physical contact with people, workload due to COVID-19, information on the preservation of COVID-19, PPE requirements and availability by the employer, and the extent of trust in the health care system may worsen the mental well-being of workers. However, we expect very good information on COVID-19 prevention measures, the availability of PPE by the employer, and complete trust in the health system to decrease poor well-being.…”

“…For example, Daas et al 50 employed protection motivation theory to determine the poorer mental wellbeing of Scottish adults. Likewise, people can feel alone due to isolation that can cause emotional problems for few individuals 51 …”

Examining COVID-19 related occupational stress in teachers in Ireland through a qualitative study using a thematic analysis approach

“…Living with this constant fear of infection can be detrimental to an individual's health and wellbeing. Literature suggests fear of COVID-19 infection was significantly positively correlated with loneliness and was negatively correlated with mental wellbeing ( Kayis et al., 2021 ). Furthermore, reports by participants of false depictions of schools as safe workplaces describes a lack of trust between teachers and those in senior or management roles.…”

Dominance or Integration? Influence of Sexual Dimorphism and Clothing Color on Judgments of Male and Female Targets' Attractiveness, Warmth, and Competence

“…This is consistent with gender stereotypes, and competence is more closely related to males than females. What’s more, data were collected during the COVID-19, in this period, people isolated at home because of serious epidemic, this may increase people’s fear of anxiety and physical injury, further exacerbating their overall anxiety levels (Blasi et al, 2019 ; Duan et al, 2021 ), White is considered positive and related to purity, cleanliness, and simplicity (Saito, 1996 ), and they can effectively alleviate negative emotions like tension, depression, and panic (Wang et al, 2018a , 2018b ), which matches people's emotional needs during the epidemic period (Hosen et al, 2021 ; Kayis et al, 2021 ). Besides, for female participants, there was no significant difference in the evaluation of feminization/masculinization of faces of targets wearing different clothing color.…”