Mental Health and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Hardiness and Meaningfulness Reduce Negative E!ects on Psychological Well-Being

Abstract

Background. !e COVID-19 outbreak and the measures taken to curb it have changed people’s lives and a"ected their psychological well-being. Many studies have shown that hardiness has reduced the adverse e"ects of stressors, but this has not been researched in the Russian COVID-19 situation yet. Objective. To assess the role of hardiness and meaningfulness as resources to cope with stress and minimize its e"ects on psychological wellbeing. Design. !e study was conducted March 24–May 15, 2020 on a sample of 949 people (76.7% women), aged 18–66 years (M = 30.55, Me = 27, SD = 11.03). !e data was divided into four time-periods, cut o" by the dates of signi$cant decisions by the Russian authorities concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. !e questionnaires were: Beck Anxiety and Depression Inventories, Symptom Check-list-90-R, Noetic Orientations Test, and Personal Views Survey-III. Results. Welch’s ANOVA showed signi$cant di"erences between the time-periods in meaningfulness, hardiness, anxiety, depression, and the General Symptomatic Index (GSI) (W = 4.899, p < 0.01; W = 3.173, p < 0.05; W = 8.096, p < 0.01; W = 3.244, p < 0.022; and W = 4.899, p < 0.01, respectively). General linear models for anxiety, depression, and GSI showed that biological sex, chronic diseases, self-assessed fears, and hardiness contributed to all of them. In all three models, hardiness had the most signi$cant impact. Anxiety was also in%uenced by the time factor, both in itself and in its interaction with hardiness levels. With less hardiness, more anxiety occurred over time. Conclusion. Hardiness was shown to be a personal adaptive resource in stressful situations related to the COVID-19 pandemic.