Perceived Risk and Mental Health Problems among Healthcare Professionals during COVID-19 Pandemic: Exploring the Mediating Effects of Resilience and Coronavirus Fear

Abstract

During coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, healthcare professionals were particularly at high-risk of developing symptoms of mental health problems due to being on the frontline in the battle against COVID-19. This study examined the mediating roles of resilience and coronavirus fear in the relationship between perceived risk and mental health problems among healthcare professionals including doctors and nurses who were actively treating patients confirmed with COVID-19. We recruited 204 healthcare professionals (50% females) with a mean age of 32.92 years ( SD = 7.01). Results showed that perceived risk and coronavirus fear positively predicted depression, anxiety, and stress while resilience negatively predicted those mental health problems. Coronavirus fear mediated the relationship between perceived risk and resilience, depression, anxiety, and stress. Additionally, resilience mitigated the effect of coronavirus fear on depression, anxiety, and stress. This study is among the first indicating the importance of resilience and fear as a critical mechanism that explains the relationship between perceived risk and mental health problems among health professionals directly caring for COVID-19 patients.

Meaning in Life, Religious Coping, and Loneliness During the Coronavirus Health Crisis in Turkey

“…depression and anxiety) (Arslan et al 2020b ). People with high senses of meaning in life (Arslan et al 2020a , b , c , d ) and religious coping (Ano and Vasconcelles 2005 ) can effectively cope with stressors in difficult times. Therefore, it is possible that people have more positive outcomes and less negative outcomes in the face of adversity.…”

“…This deadly disease is not only causing deaths of millions of people across the globe, but also leading to adverse psychological outcomes for infected people and healthy individuals. Although certain levels of anxiety and stress are natural responses to stressful situations (Roy et al 2020 ), higher risk of infection, fear, and anxiety corresponding to the disease can cause negative mental health outcomes both at an individual and societal levels (Ahorsu et al 2020 ; Arslan et al 2020a , b , c , d ; Burke and Arslan 2020 ; Yıldırım and Güler 2020 ).…”

“…Previous research has documented that the experience of feeling that one has significance and purpose in life, is significantly associated with variety of mental health outcomes for individuals coping with a range of different health crises and illnesses (Fleer et al 2006 ; Park et al 2008 ; Simmons et al 2000 ). A sense of meaning in life is positively related to higher levels of positive emotions (King et al 2006 ), adaptive religious coping strategies (Park et al 2008 ), and promotion of positive mental health outcomes (Arslan et al 2020b ). Lack of meaning in life was positively associated with health anxiety (Yek et al 2017 ), and loneliness (Cole et al 2015 ).…”

Perceived risk and parental coronavirus anxiety in healthcare workers: a moderated mediation role of coronavirus fear and mental well-being

“…By 11 November 2020, there have been more than 51.5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases throughout the world and more than 1.274,000 deaths from 191 countries and territories (Center for Systems Science and Engineering, 2020). Psychological impacts of the pandemics on people, particularly frontline healthcare workers have been underrepresented (Yıldırım et al, 2020a).…”

“…During pandemic, healthcare workers could be very concern about contracting the virus or passing it on to their children and thereby affecting their mental well-being. Frontline healthcare workers had reported high levels of depression, anxiety, stress and post-traumatic stress disorders (Lee et al, 2018;Tam et al, 2004;Yıldırım et al, 2020a). Peeri et al (2020) highlighted that the infection rate of healthcare workers during the SARS and MERS outbreaks was respectively about 21% and 18.6% which caused many negative psychological consequences such as anxiety and depression.…”