Mindfulness, Age and Gender as Protective Factors Against Psychological Distress During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objective: Mindfulness disposition is associated with various psychological factors and prevents emotional distress in chronic diseases. In the present study, we analyzed the key role of mindfulness dispositions in protecting the individual against psychological distress consequent to COVID-19 social distancing and quarantining. Methods: An online survey was launched on March 13, 2020, with 6,412 responses by April 6, 2020. Socio-demographic information, exposure to the pandemic, and quarantining were assessed together with psychological distress and mindfulness disposition. Multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to study the influence of predictive factors on psychological distress and quality of life in Italian responders during the early days of lockdown. Pearson correlations were calculated to study the relationship between mindfulness and psychiatric symptoms. Results: Multivariate linear regression run on socio-demographics, COVID-19-related variables, and mindfulness disposition as moderators of overall psychological distress showed that mindfulness was the best predictor of psychological distress (β = −0.504; p < 0.0001). High negative correlations were found between mindfulness disposition and the overall Global Severity Index (r = −0.637; p < 0.0001), while moderate to high associations were found between mindfulness and all SCL-90 sub-scales. Discussion: Findings showed that high dispositional mindfulness enhances wellbeing and helps in dealing with stressful situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Mindfulness-based mental training could represent an effective intervention to stem post-traumatic psychopathological beginnings and prevent the onset of chronic mental disorders.

Psychological Symptoms in Health Professionals in Spain After the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…We have exhausted workers with fear of new outbreaks. For this reason, we recommend the implementation of psychological support (Conversano et al, 2020;Petzold et al, 2020) and timely interventions for health workers who present psychological symptoms due to the work overload suffered amid the COVID-19 crisis.…”

Identifying Predictors of Psychological Distress During COVID-19: A Machine Learning Approach

“…Initial reports from China indicate that the COVID-19 outbreak and associated quarantining measures have also led to an increase in symptoms of psychological distress including anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicide attempts (Qiu et al, 2020), and post-traumatic stress (Liu et al, 2020). Similarly, during the acute phase of COVID-19 in Italy, the number of days in lockdown was associated with higher levels of psychological distress, including higher PTSS (Conversano et al, 2020a;Di Giuseppe et al, 2020c;Marazziti et al, 2020). A recent meta-analysis focused on prevalence rates for psychological distress during COVID-19, found high rates of anxiety (31.9%), depression (33.7%), and stress (29.6%) (Salari et al, 2020).…”

Mindfulness, Compassion, and Self-Compassion Among Health Care Professionals: What's New? A Systematic Review

“…Mindfulness propensity is known as facilitators of well-being and adaptation for healthcare professionals, together with high adaptive defense mechanisms (Catalano et al, 2019;Di Giuseppe et al, 2019aMartino et al, 2020a). Moreover, mindfulness interventions proved to be very helpful in reducing the psychopathological symptomatology of chronic conditions (Bonadonna, 2003;Catalano et al, 2017;Poli et al, 2017Poli et al, , 2019Conversano and Marchi, 2018;Marchini et al, 2018;Conversano, 2019;Di Giuseppe et al, 2019bMartino et al, 2019aMartino et al, ,b, 2020bMerlo, 2019;Conversano et al, 2020a;Lenzo et al, 2020;Poli et al, 2020).…”