Abstract
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.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has caused a great deal of stress in almost all countries in the world (Gormsen and Koijen, 2020; Remuzzi and Remuzzi, 2020; Vahedian-Azimi et al, 2020; Xu et al, 2020)
The fear of death and escape acceptance death attitudes were significantly positively related to stress in step 2, whereas only the escape acceptance death attitude remained significantly related to stress in step 3
The fear of death and escape acceptance death attitudes were significantly positively related to stress in step 2, while none of the death attitudes remained significantly correlated with stress in step 3
Summary
Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has caused a great deal of stress in almost all countries in the world (Gormsen and Koijen, 2020; Remuzzi and Remuzzi, 2020; Vahedian-Azimi et al, 2020; Xu et al, 2020). Zacher and Rudolph (2020) investigated subjective wellbeing during COVID-19 in a German population They reported that life satisfaction was positively related to active coping and positive reframing and negatively related to planning. Regarding the finding about planning, the authors explained that high levels of insecurity related to the outbreak might have turned future planning into an unpleasant experience. They reported that positive affect was positively associated with active coping, using emotional support, and religion, and negatively associated with humor. The outcomes of the study showed that positive reframing, acceptance, and humor were related to better mental health, whereas self-blame, venting, behavioral disengagement, and self-distraction were associated with poorer mental health
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