| Authors |
Chong Y.Y. , Chien W.T. , Cheng H.Y. , Lamnisos D. , Lubenko J. , Presti G. , Squatrito V. , Constantinou M. , Nicolaou C. , Papacostas S. , Aydin G. , Ruiz F.J. , GARCÍA MARTÍN, MARÍA BELÉN, Obando-Posada D.P. , Segura-Vargas M.A. , Vasiliou V.S. , McHugh L. , Höfer S. , Baban A. , Neto D.D. , da Silva A.N. , Monestès J.-L. , ÁLVAREZ GÁLVEZ, JAVIER, Blarrina M.P. , Montesinos F. , Salas S.V. , Ori D. , Kleszcz B. , Lappalainen R. , Ivanovic I. , Gosar D. , Dionne F. , Merwin R.M. , Gloster A.T. , Karekla M. , Kassianos A.P. |
| Abstract |
This study aimed to compare the mediation of psychological flexibility, prosociality and coping in the impacts of illness perceptions toward COVID-19 on mental health among seven regions. Convenience sampled online survey was conducted between April and June 2020 from 9130 citizens in 21 countries. Illness perceptions toward COVID-19, psychological flexibility, prosociality, coping and mental health, socio-demographics, lockdown-related variables and COVID-19 status were assessed. Results showed that psychological flexibility was the only significant mediator in the relationship between illness perceptions toward COVID-19 and mental health across all regions (all ps = 0.001–0.021). Seeking social support was the significant mediator across subgroups (all ps range = <0.001–0.005) except from the Hong Kong sample (p = 0.06) and the North and South American sample (p = 0.53). No mediation was found for problem-solving (except from the Northern European sample, p = 0.009). Prosociality was the significant mediator in the Hong Kong sample (p =0.016) and the Eastern European sample (p = 0.008). These findings indicate that fostering psychological flexibility may help to mitigate the adverse mental impacts of COVID-19 across regions. Roles of seeking social support, problem-solving and prosociality vary across regions. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. |
