Effects of COVID-19 on Mental Health and Its Relationship With Death Attitudes and Coping Styles Among Hungarian, Norwegian, and Turkish Psychology Students.

The purpose of this study was to investigate mental effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and its relationship with death attitudes and coping styles among Hungarian, Norwegian, and Turkish psychology students. A total of 388 participants from Hungary (N = 122, 31.4%), Norway (N = 96, 24.7%), and Turkey (N = 170, 43.8%) were recruited during the pandemic. The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, the Carver Brief COPE Inventory, and the Death Attitude Profile-Revised were used. The results indicated that escape acceptance might be the most maladaptive death attitude during COVID-19, as it was related to poorer mental health among the Hungarian, Norwegian, and Turkish psychology students. Self-blame, behavioral disengagement, self-distraction, and substance use coping styles were also related to poorer mental health, whereas positive-reframing (only among the Hungarian and Turkish participants) and humor (only among the Norwegian participants) were related to better mental health among our sample in the context of COVID-19. The findings implied that death attitudes and coping styles may differ in their efficacy among the Hungarian, Norwegian, and Turkish participants. These differences were discussed in detail in the discussion part. During the pandemic, practitioners might pay closer attention to patients with higher escape acceptance death attitude and patients who use dysfunctional coping styles. Additionally, patients can be encouraged to use techniques involving positive reframing and humor coping styles.

Different Death Attitudes in Internalizing Symptom Context Among Norwegian and Turkish Women.

The aim of the present study was to examine the association between death attitudes and depressive and anxiety symptoms among Norwegian and Turkish women. 304 participants were recruited (NNorwegian = 127 [41.8%]; NTurkish = 177 [58.2%]). The Beck Depression Inventory, the trait anxiety subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Death Attitude Profile-Revised were administered. The results showed that Fear of Death was positively correlated with anxiety symptoms among Turkish respondents; Approach Acceptance was negatively correlated with depressive and anxiety symptoms among Norwegian participants; and none of the death attitudes had significant negative associations with depressive and anxiety symptoms among Turkish participants. The analysis showed that Escape Acceptance was the only death attitude positively associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms for both countries. We may thus hypothesise that Escape Acceptance is the most maladaptive death attitude for both countries. Patients with this death attitude should be paid closer attention.

Comparison of the Relationship Between Death Anxiety and Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms Among Norwegian and Turkish Female Psychology Students.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between death anxiety and depressive and anxiety symptoms among Norwegian and Turkish female psychology students. For this purpose, 304 participants were recruited, of whom 127 were Norwegian and 177 were Turkish. Participants' ages ranged from 18 to 35 years. The Beck Depression Inventory, the trait anxiety subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Death Anxiety Scale were used to examine these relationships. The findings showed that death anxiety was significantly related to depressive and anxiety symptoms in both countries. Furthermore, Turkish participants scored higher on both death anxiety and depressive and anxiety symptoms than their Norwegian counterparts. The findings encourage researchers to focus more on the relationship between death anxiety and depressive and anxiety symptoms in a cross-cultural frame.