Open AccessDysfunctional Coping Mediates the Relationship between Stress and Mental Health in Health-Care Staff Working amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
Author(s) -
Warchoł-Biedermann Katarzyna,
Daroszewski Przemysław,
Bączyk Grażyna,
Greberski Krzysztof,
Bugajski Paweł,
Karoń Jacek,
Mojs Ewa,
Ziarko Michał,
Jasielska Aleksandra,
Samborski Włodzimierz
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
medical principles and practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.426
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1423-0151
pISSN - 1011-7571
DOI - 10.1159/000516181
Subject(s) - original paper
Objective: This cross-sectional study aimed to assess the stress outcomes in health-care staff working during the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore the role of coping in the relationship between stress outcomes and mental health dimensions with Preacher & Hayes’s mediation analysis. Subjects and Methods: One hundred seventy participants including physicians ( n = 41; 24.1%), nurses ( n = 114, 67.1%), and paramedics ( n = 15, 8.8%) with a mean age of 37.69 ± 12.23 years and an average seniority of 14.40 ± 12.32 years were administered the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), the Emotional Processing Scale, and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. The data were analyzed by estimation of simple correlation coefficients and a Preacher and Hayes’s mediation procedure. Results: Participants reported elevated levels of stress (7–8 sten on the sten scale developed for the PSS-10 questionnaire). Statistically significant differences in the stress levels between nurses, paramedics, and physicians could not be determined. In contrast, significant association between mental health outcomes and the occupational category could not be found. Conclusion: Our observations support the assumption about a controlling role of coping in the relationship between work-related stress, alexithymia, emotional processing loneliness and positive/negative affect in medical staff working amid pandemic.