The relationship between psychological capital and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic: A longitudinal mediation model

Abstract

The new Coronavirus has impacted people’s lifestyles, stress, and well-being. Thus, they need personal positive resources to help them during challenging circumstances. With this longitudinal study on 290 participants, we analyzed the relationship between psychological capital (PsyCap), measured at the beginning of the lockdown period and some indicators of mental health (depression, anxiety, satisfaction with life) measured after 2 months. Moreover, we examined whether stress (at Time 2) mediates the relationships. Following structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses, the results show that PsyCap has a significant positive effect on satisfaction with life and significant negative effects on depression and anxiety. Stress mediated all the relationships.

Developing Sustainable Careers during a Pandemic: The Role of Psychological Capital and Career Adaptability

“…Similarly, because our study focuses on employees working during the COVID-19 pandemic, career adaptability can be especially important for increasing employees' proactive behavior during crises and in challenging environments. Similarly, our findings align with current research reporting on the significance of PsyCap for employees' volition and career adaptability [57] as well as their anxiety and satisfaction [58]. Zhuang et al, [57] reported that employees' low PsyCap can greatly reduce career adaptability, which would in turn have negative implications for their abilities to cope with challenging environments such as the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…Evidence shows that PsyCap may be essential when employees experience resource losses due to challenging environments [56,57]. Recent research reports that individuals high on PsyCap express higher volition and career adaptability [57] as well as significantly lower depression and anxiety and higher satisfaction with life [58]. Therefore, we expected that PsyCap would be a valuable resource, which would help employees deal with the current COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Coping with the unexpected: A job demands/resources study exploring Italian teachers’ remote working experience during the COVID‐19 lockdown

“…Maybe, being personal resources (self-efficacy and resilience) a fundamental component of individual adaptability ( Hobfoll, 2002 ), the teachers involved in our study might have relied upon them to deal with the pressing job demands brought about by the pandemic. As also recent studies conducted in the pandemic scenario pointed out, psychological capital may provide individuals with the ability to successfully manage stress and anxiety keeping high levels of well-being and health, especially in challenging situations ( Turliuc and Candel, 2021 ).…”

The mediating role of psychological capital in relations between spiritual well-being and mental health among nursing students

“…However, they face more tension [ 31 ]. PsyCap makes people more resilient, adaptable, optimistic about the future, and confident in their abilities [ 32 ]. University instructors need to focus on aspects of PsyCap in the university curriculum.…”