Abstract
Background: A growing number of studies report that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in diverse aversive psychological reactions and created a global mental health crisis. However, the specific mechanisms underlying the negative emotional reactions as well as the differences between countries are only beginning to be explored. The present study examined the association of COVID-19-related fear and negative affect in Israel and Switzerland. The mediating roles of three control beliefs were explored, namely, fatalism, locus of control, and perceived institutional betrayal.Method: General population samples of 595 Swiss and 639 Israeli participants were recruited and completed an online self-report survey. Moderated Mediation using multigroup path analysis models for the two samples were conducted and compared using AMOS.Results: The multigroup path model had excellent fit for both samples. The different paths were moderated by country affiliation. Higher levels of COVID-19-related fear were associated with negative affect to an equal extent in both samples. COVID-19-related fear was associated with higher reports of institutional betrayal and a lower locus of control in both samples. Higher COVID-19-related fear was associated with lower fatalism in the Swiss sample only. In both samples, institutional betrayal mediated the association between COVID-19-related fear and negative affect, however, locus of control was a mediator in the Israeli sample only.Conclusion: The current results suggest that the reaction of the government was of crucial importance with regard to the emotional state of the two populations. Interestingly, while in the context of adversity fatalism is generally considered a risk factor for mental health, during the time of the pandemic it seems to have had protective qualities among the Swiss population. Interventions that strengthen the personal locus of control have the potential to mitigate the negative affect in Israel but not in Switzerland. Despite the fact that COVID-19 is a global phenomenon, prevention and intervention strategies should be adjusted to local contexts.
Highlights
Since the beginning of the year 2020 the lives of people around the globe have been dominated by one particular stressor: the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
The model fit the data only adequately for each individual sample though in both samples root-meansquare error of approximation (RMSEA) was high: χ2(N = 639, df = 8) = 33.72, p < 0.001, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.91, non-normed-fit index (NNFI) = 0.93, Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.93, RMSEA = 0.071, 90% CI [0.047, 0.097] for the Israeli sample and, χ2(N = 595, df = 8) = 42.89, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.91, NNFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.92, RMSEA = 0.086, 90% CI [0.062, 0.112] for the Swiss sample. In both samples higher age was associated with lower negative affect and being male was related to lower levels of negative affect compared to being female. In both samples, being male was associated with lower fatalism, but gender was not related to locus of control of institutional betrayal
In the Israeli sample, higher age was related to higher institutional betrayal and lower fatalism, but it was not related to locus of control
Summary
Since the beginning of the year 2020 the lives of people around the globe have been dominated by one particular stressor: the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). A growing number of studies have reported on the extensive negative psychological reactions to COVID-19, which amount to a global mental health crisis [1]. The present study, examined the association of COVID-19 related fear and negative affect in two samples collected in Israel and Switzerland with the aim to identify potential mechanisms underlying this association. The specific mechanisms underlying the negative emotional reactions as well as the differences between countries are only beginning to be explored. Some differences were found between the samples in terms of age, gender, education level, and the number of people in a household. No differences were found between the Swiss and Israeli samples in exposure to COVID-19 related stressors, significant differences were found between the two samples in all of the study variables. Gender Female Male Agea (M, SD) Education level Primary/middle school Highschool Academic Number of people in household (M, SD) Financial loss since COVID-19 outbreak No financial loss Minor financial loss Major financial loss
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