Humor and fear of COVID-19 in Polish adults: the mediating role of generalized anxiety

Abstract

Since the end of 2019 to the present day, the COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting the functioning of countries, institutions and individuals. So far, despite the increasing number of studies, little is known about the effects of the pandemic on the psychosocial well-being of a person. Research results obtained to date suggest that the fear of COVID-19 may be reduced by humor. However, to be able to harness this observation to provide more effective psychological assistance to those struggling with serious concerns about the aftermaths of the pandemic, one has to understand the mechanisms of the relationship between humor and fear of COVID-19. Both clinical experience and research findings show that the postulated relationship may be mediated by generalized anxiety. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between humor, conceptualized as a dimension of wisdom, and fear of COVID-19, and the role of generalized anxiety as a potential mediator of this relationship in adults. A longitudinal three-wave field study was carried out in a sample of 214 adults from Poland. A mediation analysis with bias-corrected bootstrapping method confirmed that the relation between humor and fear of COVID-19 was mediated by generalized anxiety.

Loneliness and Fear of COVID-19 in Polish Adults. The Mediating Role of Generalized Mood

“…These results are worth using for education of future professional helpers (e.g., nurses, doctors, social workers, psychologists) who, as yet, have not been prepared for work during a pandemic nor for using remote support tools on as large a scale as needed now. Recent research reports suggest that these educational activities should be directed at strengthening in adults their personality resources such as optimism (Alves et al, 2022), hope (Marciano et al, 2022), resilience (Satici et al, 2022), humor (Saricali et al, 2020;Torres-Marín et al, 2022) and wisdom (Brudek & Steuden, 2022;Fowers et al, 2021). It turns out that these mental resources have helped adult individuals coping with pandemic stress.…”

Reliability Generalization Meta-Analysis of Seven Wisdom Self-Rating Scales From 2004 to 2023

“…Therefore, we cannot help but wonder whether a wisdom scale compiled under the guidance of different wisdom theories can reasonably and comprehensively reflect the overall concept of wisdom. Some studies may directly extract a single factor for empirical research (Brudek & Steuden, 2022), but this means that one must be cautious in interpreting the representativeness of research results and in the generalization of conclusions drawn. The current study also found that the internal consistency reliability of the original scale was higher than that of its simplified version (e.g., 3D-WS、BWSS and SWIS).…”