Relationship between Stress and Alexithymia, Emotional Processing and Negative/Positive Affect in Medical Staff Working amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The psychological burden of the COVID-19 pandemic may have a lasting effect on emotional well-being of healthcare workers. Medical personnel working at the time of the pandemic may experience elevated occupational stress due to the uncontrollability of the virus, high perceived risk of infection, poor understanding of the novel virus transmission routes and unavailability of effective antiviral agents. This study used path analysis to analyze the relationship between stress and alexithymia, emotional processing and negative/positive affect in healthcare workers. The sample included 167 nurses, 65 physicians and 53 paramedics. Sixty-two (21.75 %) respondents worked in COVID-19-designated hospitals. Respondents were administered the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale, Emotional Processing Scale, and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. The model showed excellent fit indices (χ2 (2)=2.642, p=0.267; CFI=0.999, RMSEA=0.034, SRMR=0.015). Multiple group path analysis demonstrated physicians differed from nurses and paramedics at the model level (X2diff (7)=14.155, p<0.05 and X2diff (7)=18.642, p<0.01, respectively). The relationship between alexithymia and emotional processing was stronger in nurses than in physicians (difference in beta=0.27; p<0.05). Individual path χ2 tests also revealed significantly different paths across these groups. The results of the study may be used to develop evidence-based intervention programs promoting healthcare workers’ mental health and well-being.

Alexithymia in adolescents in Poland: an important issue in the holistic approach to patients’ care

“…Several investigators documented that COVID-19 pandemic increased the stress and anxiety in many people [22][23][24]. Moreover, it was found that COVID-19 pandemic also influenced alexithymia [29,30,37,38]. One could hypothesize that this unique stressful situation related to the pandemic might also change the observed pattern of gender distribution in alexithymia.…”

“…It is clear that the alexithymic traits may affect the individual response to psychological stress. On the other hand, several studies linked alexithymia with numerous psychological conditions, including stress [16,17,29,30].…”