Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 00185 Rome, Italy.
Dipartimento Salute Mentale e Dipendenze, Azienda Socio-sanitaria Territoriale Valtellina e Alto Lario, 23100 Sondrio, Italy.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Dec 29;19(1):319. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19010319.
The spread of COVID-19 and its related confinement measures were important stressors for a large part of the global population, with massive effects on both physical and mental health. Assessing how individuals coped with such a stressor and which strategies were effective is one of the main challenges for psychological research. In this study, we aimed to investigate the coping strategies implied during the COVID-19 lockdown and their effectiveness. We recruited 374 Italian participants through convenience sampling during the first pandemic wave (April 2020). We administered to our participants an online battery of questionnaires including the Brief COPE, the use of alternative coping strategies proposed by the WHO to help people facing lockdown stress, and a range of psychological symptoms. An exploratory factor analysis conducted on the subscales of the Brief COPE revealed a three-factor structure. Following the previous literature, we named these factors engagement, disengagement, and help-seeking coping styles. In the pandemic scenario, the engagement and disengagement styles revealed the typical correlation patterns with psychological symptoms (i.e., the engagement was adaptive while the disengagement was maladaptive). Instead, contrary to previous literature, help-seeking was positively related to psychological symptoms, suggesting a mismatch between searching for help and finding it during the lockdown. This result supports the importance of evaluating the effectiveness of coping strategies in the pandemic scenario, to give more compelling and precise advice to the population.
COVID-19 的传播及其相关的隔离措施是全球大部分人口的重要压力源，对身心健康都产生了巨大影响。评估个人如何应对这种压力源以及哪些策略是有效的，是心理研究的主要挑战之一。在这项研究中，我们旨在调查 COVID-19 封锁期间所采用的应对策略及其有效性。我们通过方便抽样在第一波疫情期间（2020 年 4 月）招募了 374 名意大利参与者。我们向参与者发放了一份在线问卷，其中包括 Brief COPE、世界卫生组织（WHO）提出的用于帮助应对封锁压力的替代应对策略，以及一系列心理症状。对 Brief COPE 子量表进行的探索性因素分析揭示了三因素结构。根据先前的文献，我们将这些因素命名为参与、不参与和寻求帮助的应对方式。在大流行的情况下，参与和不参与的模式显示出与心理症状的典型相关模式（即参与是适应性的，而不参与是适应性的）。然而，与先前的文献相反，寻求帮助与心理症状呈正相关，这表明在封锁期间寻求帮助和找到帮助之间不匹配。这一结果支持了在大流行情况下评估应对策略有效性的重要性，以便为公众提供更有说服力和更准确的建议。
