An international study on psychological coping during COVID-19 : towards a meaning-centered coping style

Eisenbeck, Nikolett (author), Avsec, Andreja (author), Zager Kocjan, Gaja (author), Kavčič, Tina (author)

Background/Objective: This study examined the role of different psychological coping mechanisms in mental and physical health during the initial phases of the COVID-19 crisis with an emphasis on meaning-centered coping. Method: A total of 11,227 people from 30 countries across all continents participated in the study and completed measures of psychological distress (depression, stress, and anxiety), loneliness, well-being, and physical health, together with measures of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping, and a measure called the Meaning-centered Coping Scale (MCCS) that was developed in the present study. Validation analyses of the MCCS were performed in all countries, and data were assessed by multilevel modeling (MLM). Results: The MCCS showed a robust one-factor structure in 30 countries with good test-retest, concurrent and divergent validity results. MLM analyses showed mixed results regarding emotion and problem-focused coping strategies. However, the MCCS was the strongest positive predictor of physical and mental health among all coping strategies, independently of demographic characteristics and country-level variables. Conclusions: The findings suggest that the MCCS is a valid measure to assess meaning-centered coping. The results also call for policies promoting effective coping to mitigate collective suffering during the pandemic.

• Language: English
• Keywords: pandemics, epidemics, coronavirus, COVID-19, well-being, stress, coping behavior, psychology, meaning, distress, Meaning-centered coping scale MCCS, Depression, anxiety and stress scale DASS-21, Brief coping orientation to problems experienced - Brief COPE, The PERMA profiler, Ex post facto study
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: 14 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 22, iss. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-129010
• UDC: 159.944.4:616-036.22
• ISSN on article: 2174-0852
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijchp.2021.100256
• COBISS.SI-ID: 70678531
• Publication date in RUL: 23.08.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of clinical and health psychology
• Shortened title: Int. j. clin. health psychol.
• Publisher: Asociación Española de Psicología Conductual, Elsevier
• ISSN: 2174-0852
• COBISS.SI-ID: 518824473

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.
• Licensing start date: 14.07.2021

Secondary language

• Language: Spanish
• Title: Estudio internacional sobre afrontamiento psicológico durante el COVID-19 : hacia un afrontamiento centrado en el sentido
• Keywords: pandemije, epidemije, koronavirus, COVID-19, blagostanje, stres, spoprijemanje, psihologija, smisel, duševna stiska, Lestvica k smislu usmerjenega spoprijemanja, Vprašalnik depresivnosti, anksioznosti in stresa DASS-21, Vprašalnik spoprijemanja s stresom - kratka verzija COPE