Abstract
The well-being of healthcare personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic depends on the ways in which they perceive the threat posed by the virus, personal resources, and coping abilities. The current study aims to examine the mediating role of coping strategies in the relationship between risk perception of COVID-19 and psychological well-being, as well as the relationship between meaning-based resources and psychological well-being amongst healthcare personnel in southern Poland. Two hundred and twenty-six healthcare personnel who worked in hospitals, outpatient clinics, and medical laboratories during the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic (March–May 2020) filled in questionnaires measuring risk perception of COVID-19, meaning-based resources, coping, and psychological well-being. The results demonstrate that risk perception was negatively related to psychological well-being, whereas meaning-based resources were positively associated with well-being. Two coping strategies—problem-focused and meaning-focused coping—mediated the relationship between risk perception and psychological well-being as well as the relationship between meaning-based resources and psychological well-being. This indicates that perception processes and personal factors do not directly influence healthcare personnel’s psychological well-being, but rather they do indirectly through coping processes.
Highlights
The highly infectious coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 caused an epidemic of acute respiratory syndrome (COVID-19)
We found that risk perception of COVID-19 infection—risk of contracting, fear, and perceived threat of COVID-19—negatively correlated with psychological well-being, whereas meaning-based resources (i.e., meaning in life (MIL) and existential mattering) correlated positively with well-being
The present study demonstrates the value of examining the mediating role of coping in the relationship of risk perception and personal resources with psychological well-being amongst healthcare personnel
Summary
The highly infectious coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 caused an epidemic of acute respiratory syndrome (COVID-19). In Poland, the COVID-19 pandemic began on 4 March 2020, and on 5 October 2020 the number of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 had risen to 102,080; of those, 2659 died. Healthcare personnel have found themselves on the frontline in combating COVID-19, working with an increased workload in terms of working hours and patient numbers and facing the highest risk of infection. Operating under such conditions may have contributed to increased psychological stress, with immediate and perhaps long-term psychological consequences [2]
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