Abstract
The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic represents a worldwide emergency, which may have harmful consequences on people’s mental health. Parallel to research focused on risk factors, it could be useful to investigate the factors that help to cope with such crises at an emotional level. Therefore, this study aimed to strengthen the role of variables that protect from subjective distress during the COVID-19 pandemic, explore the pathways between satisfaction with life and perceived stress, and consider the role of coping strategies and defense mechanisms in this relationship. A sample of 1102 Italian participants who were experiencing the COVID-19 lockdown measures (Mage = 34.91, SD = 11.91) completed an online survey in which the Ten Item Perceived Stress Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale, Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory and Forty-Item Defense Style Questionnaire were included. The data were analyzed using Pearson’s r correlations and moderation analysis. A chained-mediation model showed that the relationship between life satisfaction and perceived stress is partially mediated by approach coping, positive attitude and mature defenses. This study contributes toward gaining a better understanding of a protective pathway for mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings could be useful from both a preventive and an intervention perspective.
Highlights
The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious disease caused by the spread of the Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and represents a serious global public health emergency [1]
This study aimed to deepen the variables which may have a protective effect from subjective distress during the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring the pathways between satisfaction with life and perceived stress, considering the role of approach coping, positive attitude, and mature defense mechanisms in this relationship
This study contributes toward gaining a further important step toward the understanding of a protective pathway for mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic and provides useful support for furthering existing research in this area. This worldwide state of emergency, can have significant repercussions on people’s emotional state and it is essential to expand the knowledge of the factors useful for designing interventions which may help to preserve psychological health during the pandemic [65]. These findings highlight the need for paying particular attention to satisfaction with life, and approach coping, positive attitude and mature defenses, to contain perceived stress levels during the COVID-19 phases
Summary
The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious disease caused by the spread of the Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and represents a serious global public health emergency [1]. Research on previous epidemics, such as the SARS (2002–2004) and Ebola (2013–2016), proved the association between these outbreaks and significant levels of psychological distress [5, 6] This is consistent with recent studies highlighting the increase in perceived stress and mental health diseases related to the COVID-19 pandemic [7,8,9,10] and the resulting preventive measures (see [11] for a review): the risk of infection, financial difficulties, lockdown and physical distancing measures, were associated with moderate and severe stress [12] and emotional distress [13], linked to psychological and behavioral symptoms such as anxiety, fear, somatic disorders, sleep problems and increased use of substances, especially tobacco and alcohol [14,15,16]. This opens a way to the study of factors that could play a protective role in psychological health during and after the pandemic
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