The role of healthy emotionality in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental health problems: a cross-sectional study

Yao, N, Nazari, N, Veiskarami, HA and Griffiths, MD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8880-6524, 2022. The role of healthy emotionality in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental health problems: a cross-sectional study. Cognitive Processing, 23, pp. 569-581. ISSN 1612-4782

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Abstract

Understanding pandemic-related psychopathology development is limited due to numerous individual and contextual factors. It is widely accepted that individual differences to endure or cope with distress predict psychopathology development. The present study investigated the influence of individual differences in neuroticism and healthy emotionality concerning the association between fear of COVID-19 and mental health problems. It was hypothesized that healthy emotionality would moderate the mediated link between fear of COVID-19 and mental health problems. A sample of 752 participants (351 males and 401 females) completed an online survey including the Emotional Style Questionnaire, Fear of COVID-19 Scale, the Neuroticism subscale of the Big Five Inventory, and General Health Questionnaire. The results showed that the fear of COVID-19 positively predicted mental health problems (β = .43, SE = .05, p < .001, Cohen's f 2 = .24). Neuroticism also showed a significant mediation effect on the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental health problems. Fear of COVID-19 indirectly predicted psychopathology through neuroticism (β = − .16, SE = .04, p < .001, t = 4.53, 95% CI [0.11, 0.23]). Moreover, healthy emotionality had a moderating effect on the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental health problems, β = − .21, SE = .03, p < .001, t = 5.91, 95% CI [− 0.26, − 0.14]. The study's findings are expected to contribute to a better understanding of the roles of both individual differences in personality traits and healthy emotionality in psychopathology development during the current pandemic.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Cognitive Processing
Creators:	Yao, N., Nazari, N., Veiskarami, H.A. and Griffiths, M.D.
Publisher:	Springer (part of Springer Nature)
Date:	November 2022
Volume:	23
ISSN:	1612-4782
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1007/s10339-022-01101-5 DOI 1563471 Other
Rights:	© Marta Olivetti Belardinelli and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	07 Jul 2022 09:09
Last Modified:	05 Jul 2023 03:00
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/46571

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