Fear of COVID-19 and emotional dysfunction problems:Intrusive,avoidance and hyperarousal stress as key mediators  

作　　者：Raquel Falcó Verónica Vidal-Arenas Jordi Ortet-Walker Juan C Marzo JoséA Piqueras PSICO-RECURSOS COVID-19 Study Group 

机构地区：[1]Department of Health Psychology and Center for Applied Psychology,Universidad Miguel Hernández,Elche 03202,Alicante,Spain [2]Department of Basic and Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology,Universitat Jaume I,Castellóde la Plana 12071,Castellón,Spain

出　　处：《World Journal of Psychiatry》2022年第8期1088-1101,共14页世界精神病学杂志

摘　　要：BACKGROUND There is mounting empirical evidence of the detrimental effects of the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)outbreak on mental health.Previous research has underscored the effects of similar destabilizing situations such as war,natural disasters or other pandemics on acute stress levels which have been shown to exacerbate current and future psychopathological symptoms.AIM To explore the role of acute stress responses(intrusive,avoidance and hyperarousal)as mediators in the association between fear of COVID-19 and emotional dysfunction-related problems:Depression,agoraphobia,panic,obsessivecompulsive,generalized anxiety,social anxiety and health anxiety symptoms.METHODS A sample of 439 participants from a university community in Spain(age:mean±SD:36.64±13.37;73.1%females)completed several measures assessing their fear of COVID-19,acute stress responses and emotional dysfunction syndromes through an online survey.Data collection was carried out from the start of home confinement in Spain until May 4,2020,coinciding with initial de-escalation measures.Processing of the dataset included descriptive and frequency analyses,Mann-Whitney U Test of intergroup comparisons and path analysis for direct and indirect effects.This is an observational,descriptive-correlational and crosssectional study.RESULTS The prevalence of clinical symptoms in our sample,reported since the beginning of the pandemic,reached 31.44%.The female group presented higher scores although the effect size was small.Overall,the participants who exceeded the clinical cut-off points in emotional problems showed higher levels of fear of COVID-19 and of cognitive,motor and psychophysiological responses of acute stress,unlike the group with normative scores.In addition,the results show significant mediated effects of hyperarousal stress among fear of COVID-19 and emotional dysfunction psychopathology.However,the clinical syndromes most related to the consequences of the pandemic(e.g.,social contact avoidance or frequent hand washing),such as agorap

关 键 词：Fear of COVID-19 Acute stress Emotional dysfunction Psychophysiological activation Mediated effects 

分 类 号：R563.1[医药卫生—呼吸系统]