Emotional distress and coping strategies in COVID-19 anxiety.

The present study aims to identify psychological factors affected by the COVID-19 pandemic given the information we have about reactions during previous pandemics, which documented features of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. We investigated the relationship between health anxiety, symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress, and coping mechanisms in the general population and among students. The study was conducted on Romanian population (n = 759), aged between 18-70 years old (M = 33.24), general population (n = 485), and students (n = 274). The results showed that the general population is more anxious when confronted with the new virus compared to students (t (757) = 1.902, p < .05, p = .029). Following the analysis of the hierarchical regression, the results revealed that when controlling the health anxiety variable, a high level of anxiety symptoms and stress, and a low level of depression symptoms could predict anxiety for COVID-19 (R 2 = .070, F change (3, 754) = 16.759, p ˂ .001). Also, we found that maladaptive strategies are the ones which explain the relationship between health anxiety and COVID-19-related anxiety (95% CI = .011 - .057). The results of this study bring extra knowledge and shed new light on the psychological aspects of the current sanitary crisis and contribute to the understanding of the way people relate to this disease.

Emotional distress and coping strategies in COVID-19 anxiety

The present study aims to identify psychological factors affected by the COVID-19 pandemic given the information we have about reactions during previous pandemics, which documented features of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. We investigated the relationship between health anxiety, symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress, and coping mechanisms in the general population and among students. The study was conducted on Romanian population (n = 759), aged between 18–70 years old (M = 33.24), general population (n = 485), and students (n = 274). The results showed that the general population is more anxious when confronted with the new virus compared to students (t (757) = 1.902, p < .05, p = .029). Following the analysis of the hierarchical regression, the results revealed that when controlling the health anxiety variable, a high level of anxiety symptoms and stress, and a low level of depression symptoms could predict anxiety for COVID-19 (R2 = .070, Fchange(3, 754) = 16.759, p ˂ .001). Also, we found that maladaptive strategies are the ones which explain the relationship between health anxiety and COVID-19-related anxiety (95% CI = .011 – .057). The results of this study bring extra knowledge and shed new light on the psychological aspects of the current sanitary crisis and contribute to the understanding of the way people relate to this disease.

The Influence of Health Beliefs, of Resources, of Vaccination History, and of Health Anxiety on Intention to Accept COVID-19 Vaccination.

The aim of this study is to investigate whether Health Belief Model constructs, personal resources, vaccination history and health anxiety exert an influence on vaccination intention. To achieve this end, we carried out a cross-sectional study of 432 people drawn from a convenience sample who answered an online questionnaire. Multiple logistical regressions showed that perception of the severity of the disease, of the benefits of being vaccinated, of barriers, and of cues to action, along with the freeness and accessibility of the vaccine and general vaccination history, are significant predictors regarding vaccination intention.