Resilience, Coping Strategies and Posttraumatic Growth in the Workplace Following COVID-19: A Narrative Review on the Positive Aspects of Trauma.

Georgia Libera Finstad,Gabriele Giorgi,Giulia Foti,Lucrezia Ginevra Lulli,Francisco J Cantero-Sánchez,Caterina Pandolfi,Nicola Mucci,José M León-Perez

doi:10.3390/ijerph18189453

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a traumatic event that has profoundly changed working conditions with detrimental consequences for workers’ health, in particular for the healthcare population directly involved in addressing the emergency. Nevertheless, previous research has demonstrated that traumatic experiences can also lead to positive reactions, stimulating resilience and feelings of growth. The aim of this narrative review is to investigate the positive aspects associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the possible health prevention and promotion strategies by analyzing the available scientific evidence. In particular, we focus on the constructs of resilience, coping strategies and posttraumatic growth (PTG). A literature search was performed on the PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Psycinfo databases. Forty-six articles were included in the literature synthesis. Psychological resilience is a fundamental variable for reducing and preventing the negative psychological effects of the pandemic and is associated with lower levels of depression, anxiety and burnout. At the individual and organizational level, resilience plays a crucial role in enhancing wellbeing in healthcare and non-healthcare workers. Connected to resilience, adaptive coping strategies are essential for managing the emergency and work-related stress. Several positive factors influencing resilience have been highlighted in the development of PTG. At the same time, high levels of resilience and positive coping strategies can enhance personal growth. Considering the possible long-term coexistence and consequences of COVID-19, organizational interventions should aim to improve workers’ adaptive coping skills, resilience and PTG in order to promote wellbeing.

Highlights

Predictions on future scenarios point to a possible coexistence with COVID-19 for many years, underlining the need to address the psychological aftermath of the pandemic [2,3]
The results showed that resilience was the only significant predictor of posttraumatic growth (PTG) while the interviews showed that resilience was experienced in terms of the hardiness, persistence, optimism and support sub factors
The results suggested that the healthcare worker group had higher levels of stress and arousal and used more problem-focused coping strategies than the emergency worker group

Summary

Introduction

A new type of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) was identified in December 2019, and on 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization [WHO] declared COVID-19 a global pandemic [1]. Science has made great strides in controlling COVID-19 infection, because of vaccine development. Predictions on future scenarios point to a possible coexistence with COVID-19 for many years, underlining the need to address the psychological aftermath of the pandemic [2,3]. Pandemics and bio-disasters have been associated with detrimental consequences for the physical and mental health of individuals, especially in the case of healthcare professionals

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion