Relationship Between Fear of COVID-19, Spirituality and Hopelessness in People During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Abstract

A global health problem today, COVID-19 has negatively affected both physical and psychological health of people all around the world. Lack of certainty about the course of the disease, failure to anticipate disease severity and duration, lack of effective treatment, and high death risk for certain populations can lead to anxiety and hopelessness for the future. People often resorted to spiritual practices to mitigate the despair the experienced during the pandemic. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between fear of COVID-19, spirituality and hopelessness in people during the COVID-19 pandemic. This descriptive and correlational study was carried out on 628 people. Data were collected from the Personal Information Form, the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, the Beck Hopelessness Scale and the Intrinsic Spirituality Scale. Participants had 19.02±5.25 points in the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, 96.18±17.57 points in the Intrinsic Spirituality Scale and 13.13±4.02 points in the Beck Hopelessness Scale. Fear of COVID-19 was found to have a statistically significant and negative effect on hopelessness (β=-0.232, p<0.05) and spirituality did not have a mediator role in this effect (-0.019, 0.036). People with high level of fear of COVID-19 had low level of hopelessness and spirituality did not play a mediator role in reducing hopelessness. The findings of this study can contribute to protection of public health by planning in advance any psychosocial intervention for high risk groups during future pandemics.