Facing the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Sense of Coherence.

Daniela Barni,Rosa Rosnati,Sonia Ranieri,Elena Canzi,Laura Ferrari,Francesca Danioni,Margherita Lanz,Camillo Regalia,Raffaella Iafrate

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.578440

Daniela Barni, Rosa Rosnati + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.578440

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Abstract

The worldwide outbreak of COVID-19, the ensuing pandemic, and the related containment measures pose considerable challenges to psychological resilience and well-being. Researchers are now forced to look for resources to cope with negative experiences linked to this health emergency. According to the salutogenic approach proposed by Antonovsky, the sense of coherence (SOC) is a major source of resilience. Thus, this study aimed at assessing the role of SOC in moderating the link between illness experiences (in terms of knowing persons diagnosed with COVID-19 and fear of contracting COVID-19) and psychological well-being. 2,784 participants, taken from a large sample of the Italian population (65.4% females) and aged between 18 and 85 years, filled in an anonymous online survey during the 3rd week of the lockdown. Findings supported the moderating role of SOC in shaping the link between illness experiences and psychological well-being. Specifically, participants who knew at least one person diagnosed with COVID-19 showed lower levels of psychological well-being at low levels of SOC. The negative relation between participants’ fear of contracting COVID-19 and psychological well-being was stronger for those who showed higher levels of SOC. This study discusses the implications of these results for interventions aimed at reducing the pandemic’s detrimental effects and promoting resilience.

Highlights

With the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19, the ensuing pandemic, and the related containment measures, a growing body of research has brought to light the sharp increase in virus-related fears and worries (e.g., Asmundson and Taylor, 2020), mental health problems, and social and economic stresses (e.g., Buheji et al, 2020)
We were interested in analyzing whether and the extent to which sense of coherence (SOC) moderates the relation between COVID-19 illness experiences and psychological well-being
The regression model showed that a significant portion of variance in participants’ well-being was explained by the predictors and their interactions, with R2 = 0.406

Summary

Introduction

With the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19, the ensuing pandemic, and the related containment measures, a growing body of research has brought to light the sharp increase in virus-related fears and worries (e.g., Asmundson and Taylor, 2020), mental health problems (see, for reviews, Rajkumar, 2020; Vindegaard and Eriksen Benros, 2020), and social and economic stresses (e.g., Buheji et al, 2020). One major concern for people is that their acquaintances and relatives or they themselves could get sick by contracting COVID-19 (Pakpour and Griffiths, 2020) This situation poses a considerable challenge to the health system (Vagni et al, 2020) and to psychological resilience (Wang et al, 2020), forcing researchers to identify the resources useful to cope with negative experiences, thoughts, and feelings linked to pandemic and to what has been defined as “parallel pandemic” of acute. According to the well-known salutogenic approach of health promotion (Antonovsky, 1979, 1987), a major individual resilience resource is the sense of coherence (SOC) It refers to the global and enduring orientation to view life and the world as “making sense cognitively, instrumentally, and emotionally” Individuals with a high SOC are likely to perceive stressors as explicable, have confidence in their coping abilities, and feel engaged and motivated to cope with stressors

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