Psychological Inflexibility Predicts Depression and Anxiety During Covid-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 has affected people across the globe in psychosocial and economic aspects. This process has been difficult for most people, even more for some others including (teachers, administrators at educational settings) working in educational settings. The purpose of this study was to understand the predictive effect of psychosocial factors (gender, age, marital status, Additional Time Spent (ATS) on social media, ATS internet compared to the pre-COVID-19 pandemic and expert programs), and psychological inflexibility on depression and anxiety for teachers employed in the Ministry of Education during the pandemic. Participants included 514 adults (49% women). The findings of the study revealed that psychological factors and psychological inflexibility together explained 47% of the variance in depression and 42% of the variance in anxiety. Specifically, gender, social media and psychological inflexibility were significant predictors of both depression and anxiety during the pandemic. In addition to the predictive effect of psychosocial factors, these results indicated that psychological flexibility was important to develop further evidence based mental health services to address psychopathology and enhanced wellbeing. The findings of the study were discussed in the light of literature, and some suggestions were provided for future research and practice.

Coronavirus stress and COVID-19 burnout among healthcare staffs: The mediating role of optimism and social connectedness.

Coronavirus stress has been associated with undesirable mental health and well-being outcomes, including burnout. However, little is known about the underlying mechanism of change. The present study aimed to examine if optimism and social connectedness mediated the relationship between coronavirus stress and COVID-19 burnout in a large sample of healthcare staffs. Participants included 1046 healthcare staffs (56.8% females) aged 20-61 years (mean age = 30.29 years, SD = 7.80), who completed the measures of coronavirus stress, optimism, social connectedness, and COVID-19 burnout. Females reported more coronavirus stress and burnout and less social connectedness. People confirmed with COVID-19 reported lower optimism. The results indicated that coronavirus stress did not only have a direct effect on increased COVID-19 burnout but also had an indirect effect on it through reduced optimism and social connectedness. These results are important given the shortage of intervention efforts targeting coronavirus stress. Future intervention efforts aimed at reducing coronavirus stress and related outcomes may benefit from simultaneously focusing on optimism and social connectedness.

Optimism and pessimism mediate the association between parental coronavirus anxiety and depression among healthcare professionals in the era of COVID-19.

Identifying factors related to healthcare professionals' mental health has become an imperative topic for offering mental health services to foster their psychological functioning. This study, for the first time, examined the mediating role of optimism and pessimism in the association between parental coronavirus anxiety and depression among Turkish healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants included 429 healthcare professionals whose age ranged between 22 and 61 years (50.3% female; M = 36.65, SD = 7.0). Results from mediation analysis revealed that parental coronavirus anxiety had a significant predictive effect on optimism, pessimism, and depression. Optimism and pessimism also had significant predictive effects on depression. Most importantly, optimism and pessimism mitigated the adverse impact of parental coronavirus anxiety on healthcare professionals' depression. The findings suggest that optimism is an essential source in reducing depression symptoms in the face of parental coronavirus experiences. Decision-makers and health organizations may integrate strength-based approaches into their guidelines to address parental coronavirus anxiety and depression.

Psychological Well-Being, Depression and Stress During COVID-19 Pandemic in Turkey: A Comparative Study of Healthcare Professionals and Non-Healthcare Professionals.

In this study, we aimed to investigate psychological well-being, depression, and stress among healthcare professionals and non-healthcare professionals in Turkey. An online questionnaire was prepared and shared with participants using social networking sites. Participants were 546 healthcare professionals (females = 313) and 445 non-healthcare professionals (females = 333), aged between 20 and 67 years. All participants completed measures of Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 and Psychological Well-Being Scale. The results showed no significant difference in the scores of psychological well-being, depression and stress of healthcare professionals and non-healthcare professionals. However, the psychological well-being of healthcare professionals and stress varied in terms of age, gender, marital status, job descriptions, and ways of working in clinic. Women, non-physician healthcare professionals, young and single people and those who worked in COVID-19 service and stayed at least one week away from their families during the pandemic were found to have poor mental well-being. Psychological well-being was significantly and negatively correlated with depression and anxiety. Our findings indicate that healthcare professionals who are at the frontline of the fight against the COVID-19, and nurses, women, single person and those who are away from their family for more than a week during the pandemic are at greater risk.