The role of psychological flexibility in the context of COVID-19: Associations with depression, anxiety, and insomnia

Lance M Mccracken,Farzaneh Badinlou,Monica Buhrman,Karin C Brocki

doi:10.1016/j.jcbs.2020.11.003

Lance M Mccracken, Farzaneh Badinlou + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2020.11.003

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Abstract

Evidence for detrimental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and well-being around the world is now accumulating. As it does a next step is to understand how such effects can be mitigated, such as by studying psychological capacities that may afford people immunity against these impacts. In this study, we explore psychological flexibility (PF) and grit as potential resilience factors in the context of COVID-19. Standardized measures of depression, anxiety, and insomnia as well as measures of PF (committed action and inflexibility) and grit (perseverance of effort and consistency of interest) were administered through a large scale national online survey (N = 1102; mean age 36,9 years; 75% women). As predicted, the results show both PF and grit to be negatively associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Further, regression models including relevant background variables and both sets of resilience factors showed that total variance accounted for in symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia was substantial, 50.5%, 49.5%, and 28.8%, respectively, with the PF components accounting for most of the explained variance in mental health. We conclude that PF and to a lesser extent grit may be important psychological resilience factors against mental health problems in the context of COVID-19. Our findings are practically important as they point to malleable public health targets during the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 and in the event of similar widespread health threats in the future.

Highlights

During the first quarter of 2020 the world found itself in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic
We found the levels of depression, anxiety, and insomnia were correlated with self-rated overall health, history of mental health conditions, and specific worries related to COVID-19, regarding personal finance (McCracken, Badinlou, Buhr man, & Brocki, 2020)
Given that mental health and wellbeing are highly associated with psychological resilience (Harms, Brady, Wood, & Silard, 2018), the purpose of the current study was to further examine whether psychological flexibility (PF) and grit represent potential immunity or resilience factors against the psycho logical impacts of COVID-19

Summary

Introduction

During the first quarter of 2020 the world found itself in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. While we count the impacts, the infection rate, persons locked down and isolated, lives lost, layoffs, business closures, and global financial impact, we examine the impact on the mental health and wellbeing of people It is appro priate that we continue to explore and dig deeper into possible psy chological resilience factors in relation to the pandemic in order to understand how to mitigate, reduce suffering, support a return to more prosperous times, and prevent such impacts in the future, if possible (Holmes et al, 2020). We found the levels of depression, anxiety, and insomnia were correlated with self-rated overall health, history of mental health conditions, and specific worries related to COVID-19, regarding personal finance (McCracken, Badinlou, Buhr man, & Brocki, 2020)

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