Positivity and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in COVID-19 Survivors: Mediating Role of Rumination and Fear of COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 pandemic, which still continues to affect the whole world, has led to an increase in PTSD symptoms in societies, especially individuals who have been diagnosed with the disease and recovered are at significant risk for PTSD have been reported. Although it has been observed that PTSD symptoms of individuals who were infected in the past epidemics such as SARS and Ebola continued for a long time even after the epidemic, it is noteworthy that the studies conducted during the COVID-19 process do not focus enough on people who survived the COVID-19 disease. The purpose of this study is to determine the direct and indirect impact of positivity on PTSD symptoms of individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 and the role of rumination and fear of COVID-19 as potential mediators in this effect. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: In the study, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, Ruminative Response Scale, Positivity Scale, and Fear of COVID-19 Scale were applied to 551 Turkish participants, who survived the COVID-19 disease. SEM-based mediation analysis was used to test hypothesized relationships. RESULTS: Mediating roles of fear of COVID-19 and rumination between positivity and PTSD were tested. Results indicated that rumination and fear of COVID-19 had a full mediating role in the relationship between positivity and PTSD. CONCLUSION: These findings pointed out that positivity might be an indirect protective disposition against COVID-19-related PTSD and might reduce risk factors associated with PTSD among COVID-19 survivors. Mental health practices for COVID-19 patients should aim to increase positive thinking, since they have ruminative thoughts about transmission of the virus and hospitalization process and these thoughts may lead to negative mental health conditions. In this sense, positive psychology-focused implementations can be organized for COVID-19 patients and survivors.

Adaptation of the Social Distancing Scale in the Covid-19 Era: Its Association with Depression, Anxiety, Stress, and Resilience in Turkey.

This study has two main objectives. The first aim is to adapt the social distancing scale (SDS) into Turkish. The second aim is to test the mediating roles of depression, anxiety, and stress on the relationship between social distance and psychological resilience. The sampling method of the study was revised as the snowball sampling. The study surveyed 843 people (481 female and 362 male) between the ages of 18 and 70 (average age 31.95) living in 51 different cities if Turkey. In the study, back-translation method was used to prepare the SDS-Turkish version. Confirmatory factor analysis results for the study showed that the single-dimension structure fits very well, as in the original form. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient for the scale was calculated as 0.70. In line with the second aim of the study, the data were tested using a structural equation model analysis. Research results showed that depression, anxiety, and stress have a full mediator role in the relationship between social distancing and resilience for Turkish residents. In other words, this study eliminates social distancing's predictability of resilience by the insertion of the mediatory variable of depression, anxiety, and stress into the structural equation model.