Abstract
Background and objective: Men are significantly affected by COVID-19 stressors that impact psychological well-being. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between distress, risk perception, emotional representations, preventive COVID-19 infection behaviors, COVID-19 traumatic stress, posttraumatic growth, and psychological well-being, taking also into consideration sociodemographic variables as well as the moderator role of posttraumatic growth in the relationship between traumatic stress and psychological well-being. Material and methods: A cross-sectional design was used. Data were collected during the lockdown, in Portugal, from January to March 2021. The sample included 220 men who answered the questionnaires online. Results: Anxiety and depression symptoms (distress), traumatic stress, and emotional representations were negatively associated with psychological well-being. Older men, professionally active men, and men not in teleworking reported greater psychological well-being. The findings also showed that less emotional representations, less traumatic stress, and lower levels of distress contributed to greater psychological well-being. Finally, posttraumatic growth played a moderating role in the relationship between traumatic stress and psychological well-being. Conclusion: Interventions and further studies must consider the buffering role of posttraumatic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic and focus on helping men handle the associated traumatic stress in order to promote psychological well-being.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic, which was declared on January 30th, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO), is considered a public health emergency of international concern [1]
To address the gaps in the literature this study aims to (1) analyze the relationships between posttraumatic growth (PTG), traumatic stress, distress, illness perception, risk perception, and preventive COVID-19 infection behaviors, and psychological well-being; (2) examine the differences between psychological well-being according to sociodemographic variables; (3) examine the contribution of psychological variables to psychological well-being; (4) evaluate the moderator role of PTG in the relationship between traumatic stress and psychological well-being
A negative association was found between distress (r = −0.803, P < 0.01), traumatic stress (r = −0.532, P < 0.01), emotional representations (r = −0.451, P < 0.01) and psychological well-being (Table 2)
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic, which was declared on January 30th, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO), is considered a public health emergency of international concern [1]. Men are significantly affected by COVID-19 stressors [6]. Men are significantly affected by COVID-19 stressors that impact psychological well-being. Results: Anxiety and depression symptoms (distress), traumatic stress, and emotional representations were negatively associated with psychological well-being. The findings showed that less emotional representations, less traumatic stress, and lower levels of distress contributed to greater psychological well-being. Posttraumatic growth played a moderating role in the relationship between traumatic stress and psychological well-being. Conclusion: Interventions and further studies must consider the buffering role of posttraumatic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic and focus on helping men handle the associated traumatic stress in order to promote psychological well-being
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