Psychological state and predictors of psychiatric morbidity in COVID-19 patients six weeks after discharge.

To be able to detect possible psychological distress and long-term deterioration caused by COVID-19, following the patient, who has recovered, is crucial. Therefore, this study (i); aims to examine the ongoing fear-loss of control, the rate of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder levels following the 6th week after discharge; (ii) to examine the effect of post-traumatic stress disorder on anxiety, and depression and (iii) within the same context to reveal the developmental markers of psychiatric morbidity and the risk group. The study includes 180 patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19 diagnosis. Sociodemographic Data Form, the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised were used in the current study. High rates of symptoms of anxiety, depression, and PTSD were reported by the inpatients, as more than one-third scored above the anxiety and depression cut-off scores of borderline abnormal and abnormal. Also, 37.22 % of the participants reported the likely presence of PTSD symptoms. Anxiety and depression were significantly positively related to the symptoms of PTSD. The results suggest that there is psychiatric morbidity in anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder and that especially posttraumatic stress poses a risk for other psychopathologies.

"Nothing replaces meeting my students at class": Analysing academics' views regarding distance education.

Distance education, also called distance learning, e-learning, and online learning, is a practice of teaching and learning in which teachers and learners are not in a closed class or room in person, but where education takes place through various new-media technologies and all parties (student-teacher, teacher-teacher, student-student) are able to communicate, interact and exchange information and emotions. Being on the agenda of educational science for a long time now and gaining further importance during COVID-19 lockdowns, both advantages (e.g., reducing social anxiety, and a flexible schedule) and disadvantages (lack of social interactivity, and miscommunication) of distance education are highly debated in the related literature. Therefore, this study, through a qualitative method (i.e., a case study design and semi-structured interviews), aims to analyse the opinions and experiences of academics regarding distance education and its applications. The participants consist of 36 lecturers working at 16 different Turkish universities selected by the purposeful sampling method (i.e., typical case sampling). The results suggest that the participants still have doubts about online distance education, and they mention both ups (ease of connection, and cost-effectiveness) and downs (lack of self-motivation, socialization, and the sense of isolation) of it. Nonetheless, none of the academics thinks distance education will replace an in-person learning environment in the near future. Thus, this study presents a general illustration of distance education activities through the views of Turkish academics and gives recommendations for future digital/distance/online learning activities and functionalities.

Family Communication and Psychological Distress in the Era of COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Role of Coping.

This study aims to examine the association between family communication and psychological distress with coping as a potential mediator. The study also developed and validated the Family Communication Scale (FCS) in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Participants (n = 658; 74.9% female) were general public ranged in age between 18 and 58 years (mean age = 26.38, SD = 10.01). The results showed that family communication directly influenced psychological distress and indirectly influenced through approach coping. However, avoidant coping was not directly associated with psychological distress, nor did it mediate the association between family communication and psychological distress. The findings suggest that people, who have better family communication, highly engage in approach coping which in turn leads to better psychological health in face of adversity. The findings have important empirical and theoretical implications.

Relationship Between Optimism-Pessimism Levels of Mothers and Anxiety Levels of Children in Turkey During COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic affects all aspects of the population including children, elderly, and vulnerable people. The aim of this study is to examine, for the first time, the relationship optimism-pessimism levels of mothers and anxiety level of children in turkey during COVID-19 pandemic. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Optimism-Pessimism Scale and Preschool Anxiety Scale were used to collect data from a representative sample of 33,362 mothers with children aged 3-6 years. RESULTS: Of the parents, 53% of them reported that their children were slightly anxious due to COVID-19 pandemic. Lower optimism and higher pessimism were significantly related with higher levels of children's anxiety including social, generalized, separation, and overall anxiety as well as obvious fear. Group comparison analysis indicated that very anxious children reported the highest level of different types of anxiety and fear compared to less anxious and not at all anxious children. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that mental health of children has been adversely affected during the pandemic and this has important implications for designing and implementing interventions aimed at reducing anxiety levels of children and determining protective and risk factors associated with anxiety in the face of adversity.

Sources of information in times of health crisis: evidence from Turkey during COVID-19.

Aim: Media as a source of information can shape public opinion regarding the COVID-19 response. Identifying how and where people seek information during the COVID-19 outbreak is vital to convey the most effective message about managing the COVID-19 crisis. The purpose of this study was to determine the sources of information and investigate the role of various demographic factors-age, gender, educational attainment and perceived economic level-on sources of information. Subject and methods: An online survey (n = 4624) was conducted on Turkish public during the early stages of the COVID-19. Results: The results showed that internet journalism and social media were the most preferable sources of information. Higher age, educational attainment and economic level were related to higher levels of seeking information from TV, newspaper, internet journalism and informative meetings. Females obtained information more from their friends and family and social media than males. High school graduates or below watched more TV and obtained less information from internet journalism, while university graduates sought information from their families and friends, and postgraduates attended informative meetings and read newspapers. People with medium and high economic status, respectively, watched more TV and read more newspapers, while people with low socioeconomic status attended informative meetings less. Conclusion: In sum, this study provides evidence that a source of information might be influenced by demographic factors. Researchers and policymakers can use a source of information to develop crisis-response strategies by considering variations in the demographic factors.

The Effect of COVID-19 Anxiety on General Health: the Role of COVID-19 Coping.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic has unprecedently affected many aspects of people's lives including their health. This study examined the mediating effect of COVID-19 coping strategies on the relationship between COVID-19 anxiety and general health. Participants (70% females) included 4624 adults (M age = 30.29 ± 10.97 years) collected through an online survey using a convenience sampling approach. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yielded a one-factor structure for the COVID-19 Anxiety Scale (CFI = .98, TLI = .96, SRMR = .02, RMSEA = .09), COVID-19 Coping Scale (CFI = .97, TLI = .97, SRMR = .03, RMSEA = .12), and General Health Scale (CFI = .99, TLI = .97, SRMR = .01, RMSEA = .04) which were developed for the purpose of this study and exhibited satisfactory reliability. Findings showed that COVID-19 anxiety was negatively related with COVID-19 coping and general health. COVID-19 coping had a positive relationship with general health. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that COVID-19 coping partially mediated the relationship between COVID-19 anxiety and general health. These findings shed more light on the mechanism underlying between COVID-19 anxiety and health. The findings are important for tailoring and implementing coping-based intervention strategies to reduce the impact of COVID-19 anxiety on general health.

The impacts of vulnerability, perceived risk, and fear on preventive behaviours against COVID-19.

The world has been under the negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic for the last few months. While people may take many preventive behaviours to minimize the risk, very little is known about the factors that can increase preventive behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the effects of vulnerability, perceived risk, and fear on preventive behaviours of COVID-19. The study used a sample of 4,536 Turkish adults (M = 30.33 ± 10.95 years) recruited from 17 March through 1 April 2020. Vulnerability, perceived risk, fear, and preventive behaviours were measured with self-rating scales. Participants mostly engaged in avoidance of public transportation and frequent handwashing as preventive behaviours. Women had a significantly higher vulnerability to, perceived risk, and fear of new coronavirus compared to men. Correlation results indicated that age, gender, education level, vulnerability, perceived risk, and fear were related to preventive behaviours. Regression results demonstrated that vulnerability, perceived risk, and fear accounted for a significant amount of variance in preventive behaviours over and above the effects of demographic variables. The results suggest that vulnerability, perceived risk, and fear can significantly increase engagement in preventive behaviours during the novel coronavirus pandemic. The results have important implications for research and practice.