Decision-making styles during stressful scenarios: The role of anxiety in COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: Decision-making is not purely rational but highlighted by the influence of intuitive and emotional processes. Recently, researchers have focused more attention on understanding which environmental and personal features influence decision-making processes, and how. Objective and methods: On this study, we investigate whether Trait Anxiety moderates the impact of Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) symptoms reported during COVID-19 pandemic on decision-making styles. Results: The study included 1,358 Brazilian participants (80% women) aged between 20 and 74 (M = 41.11; SD = 11.23) who responded to an online survey between May and August of the year 2021 of COVID-19 pandemic to The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, The Decisions Styles Scale, The Impact of Event Scale - Revised and questions related to COVID-19. Through moderation analysis, we observed that experiencing PTS is associated with a higher tendency to biased/heuristic decision-making processes. Discussion: Trait Anxiety seems to influence how people respond to PTS symptoms on decision-making related processes. Subjects with higher Trait Anxiety reported lower tendency to appeal to rationality, especially under higher reported levels of PTS. Meanwhile, lower Trait Anxiety subjects exhibited more reason-based decision-making under higher rates of PTS. This work contributes to a deeper understanding of the interplay among environmental and individual differences on decision-making styles and helps to identify factors of vulnerability for poorer cognitive functioning on stressful scenarios.

Well-being at work, productivity and coping with stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

AIMS: This study aims to analyze the mechanisms through which the Covid-19 pandemic impacts on well-being at work and productivity. The secondary objective is to identify stress management strategies in the work environment during the pandemic time. METHODS: This is an integrative review. Phase 1 consisted of a search for 2020 papers regarding mental health, work and the pandemics in free access electronic databases (MEDLINE, SCIELO, Bireme and LILACS). Phase 2 consisted of literature indicated by specialists in occupational psychiatry and positive psychology. These materials were read and critically analyzed. RESULTS: As a result of the literature review, 40 references were included. The articles reviewed were divided in the following categories: articles concerning work relationships in Brazil, articles describing the impact of pandemics on mental health and work, articles focusing on the work of health professionals during pandemics, articles about well-being at work, and papers proposing strategies to improve well-being and productivity and promote mental health. DISCUSSION: The Covid-19 pandemic can cause a significant impact on workers' mental health and productivity. Most professionals face the need to adapt to changes, which can decrease the feeling of well-being. Consequently, strategies to promote well-being and mental health at the work environment should be a priority. CONCLUSION: The work routines were modified after the installation of the Covid-19 pandemic and assessing these changes is essential to maintain workers' mental health. In this way, it is possible to achieve the promotion of general well-being, the reduction of stress, and the post-traumatic growth.

Gaming addiction and screen time in a context of increase of internalizing symptoms: Moderation evaluation.

Children and adolescents were largely affected by the psychosocial impact of the 2019-2022 pandemic. During this time, there was an increase in internalizing symptoms, screen and internet use, and internet addiction. However, the interaction of these variables are not fully understood in a stressful time. Here, we have a repeated cross-sectional study aiming to model internalizing symptoms' prediction depending on screen time and game addiction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parent-reported online data were collected at three timepoints, 6 months apart from each other, from a total of 1211 participants. We found an increase in screen time, game addiction, and internalizing symptoms. Regardless of the time spent in front of screens, higher levels of game addiction were associated with higher levels of internalizing symptoms in children and adolescents. Even if participants demonstrated low screen time, if they were virtually dependent they tended to exhibit higher levels of internalizing symptoms. The same result was found in all three samples. There is a need to investigate the nature of the relationship between internet addiction and internalizing symptoms and the long lasting effects of long hours on the screen.

Impacts of mental health in the sleep pattern of healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.

BACKGROUND: After >2 years of the Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, it is well established how sleep symptoms are rising, especially among healthcare workers (HCW). The aim of this study is to evaluate what features are associated with sleep disturbances in the HCW population. METHODS: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of social and clinical variables associated with sleep problems and insomnia incidence in HCW in a large, national-level cohort. The measurement of sleep problems was assessed by self-report using Jenkins Sleep Scale (JSS). A multivariate analysis was used in the cross-sectional design and generalized linear models were used in the longitudinal design. RESULTS: 10,467 HCW were analyzed in the cross-sectional analysis, 3313 participants were analyzed in the three timepoints of the study. Sex, previously diagnosed mental illness and frontline work with COVID-19 were associated with higher scores in JSS in the univariate analysis. In the multivariate analysis, only previous diagnosis of mental illness was related with sleep difficulties, especially previously diagnosed insomnia. The longitudinal analysis concluded that previous diagnosis of mental illnesses was associated with higher levels of insomnia development (OR = 11.62). The self-reported disorders found to be major risk factors were addiction (OR = 7.69), generalized anxiety disorder (OR = 3.67), social anxiety (OR = 2.21) and bipolar disorder (OR = 2.21). LIMITATIONS: Attrition bias. CONCLUSIONS: Previous diagnosis of mental illness was strongly related to insomnia development in HCW during the COVID-19 pandemic. Strategies that focus on this population are advised.

Longitudinal invariance and validity of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised under COVID-19 pandemic in a Brazilian sample.

Although the Impact Event Scale-Revised is widely used, its factor structure is still controversial. In addition, its longitudinal measurement invariance (LMI) remains uninvestigated. In this sense, we carried out three studies to investigate its psychometric properties. In Study 1, we evaluated the factorial structure of the scale comparing the different models existing in the literature in Brazilian samples who responded to the instrument during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Study 2, we provide support for a five-factor model throughout convergent validity with psychological distress and sleep problems, and criterion validity between people with diagnostic of mental disorders. Finally, we evaluated the LMI over a 6-month interval. The results indicated that the five-factor model has excellent goodness of fit and holds strict longitudinal invariance. Additionally, internal consistency and stability coefficients indicate that the scale is appropriate to measure posttraumatic stress symptomatology) in nonclinical samples across multiple assessments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Increased risk of health professionals to feel traumatized during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health professionals may be a vulnerable group to posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To investigate how health professionals who experienced a traumatic event are expressing PTSS and factors related to risk for higher PTSS symptomatology can inform how health professionals are facing their role in this crisis. This was an Internet cross-sectional survey. Participants were 49,767 Brazilian health professionals who have ever faced a traumatic event, which was about 25.9% of an initial sample of health professionals. PTSS symptoms were assessed using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and latent profile analysis (LPA) explored subpopulations within participants based on their scores. Distinct profiles were compared for psychological distress (e.g., depression and anxiety) and quality of life. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between IES-R profiles and COVID-19 related experiences, thoughts, and perceptions. A two-profile model was the most appropriate for the IES-R data pointing out a group with a high level of PTSS (named high-PTSS; n = 10,401, 20.9%) and another expressing a low level of symptoms (named low-PTSS; n = 39,366, 79.1%). The high-PTSS profile demonstrated worse psychological scores (global psychological distress, somatization, depression, and anxiety) and worse quality of life (physical, psychological, social, and environmental) with moderate magnitudes. Small but significant predictors of the high-PTSS profile included sociodemographic characteristics and COVID-19 related experiences, thoughts, and perceptions. Most individuals who experienced a traumatic event were not in the high-PTSS profile. For those who were, however, psychological and quality of life measures were much worse. During the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, several characteristics emerged as risks to report trauma.

Quality of Life of Health Care Professionals in Pandemic Times.

OBJECTIVE: Our objective is to provide a descriptive analysis of the quality of life among a large sample of health professionals in the early days of the pandemic. METHOD: We surveyed in the first months of the pandemics with the logistical support of the Health ministry in Brazil reaching more than 200,000 varied health professionals, with quality-of-life data, assessed using the WHOQOL-BREF, available to 97,379. We segregated the professionals by their reported field of work. RESULTS: The diferent professions report a diverse quality of life, suggesting a more heterogeneous pattern of impairment. The social relations domain of quality of life was the most affected in or sample. CONCLUSION: Knowing the target population and the features related to worsening of quality of life might help to prepare the professionals for what they must face and to improve mental health in this population.