Algahtani Fahad D, Alsaif Bandar, Ahmed Ahmed A, Almishaal Ali A, Obeidat Sofian T, Mohamed Rania Fathy, Kamel Reham Mohammed, Gul Iram, Hassan Sehar Un Nisa
College of Public Health and Health Informatics, University of Ha'il, Ha'il, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Working With Individuals and Families, Faculty of Social Work, Helwan University, Helwan, Egypt.
Front Psychol. 2022 Jul 28;13:915290. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.915290. eCollection 2022.
During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, stress and anxiety were pervasive among the masses due to high morbidity and mortality. Besides the fear of coronavirus was also particularly driven by social media. Many people started to look for faith and spiritual connections to gain comfort. The role of spiritual ties and religious beliefs in relation to coping with pandemic stress has acquired the attention of researchers in some parts of the world. This cross-sectional survey aimed at assessing the intensity of stress and anxiety symptoms experienced by people and how much they were alleviated by employing spiritual connections. The study sample comprises 795 respondents with 52% males and 48% females living in Saudi Arabia. The brief online study questionnaire collected data about background variables, anxiety and stress scale from DASS-21, and items from the WHOQOL (SRBP) instrument assessed the use of spiritual beliefs to cope. Multiple regression models were tested to determine the role of spiritual connections after adjusting demographic variables. Results illustrated that after adjusting for gender and age, participants' anxiety symptoms decreased by (β = -0.27; = 0.000) units with each unit increase in the use of spiritual connections, and participants' stress symptoms reduce by (β = -0.36; = 0.000) units with each unit increase in coping with spirituality. Additionally, females' risk to experience anxiety and stress symptoms was more than males [(β = 0.88; = 0.01) and (β = 0.92; = 0.000)], respectively. An increase in age decreases the likelihood of experiencing anxiety symptoms and stress symptoms by (β = -0.75; = 0.02) and (β = -0.11; = 0.000) units, respectively. Findings support the protective role of spiritual connections despite small beta coefficients. The social and cultural context in Saudi Arabia favors deep-rooted connections with spirituality and faith. Our findings support the fact that the reliance on spiritual connections helped older people to deal with exaggerated fear during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and reduces the risk of experiencing anxiety and stress symptoms. Females and younger participants were relatively vulnerable to developing these symptoms. We discussed these findings considering some recent studies that reported similar relationships and made recommendations for future research.
在新冠疫情的初期阶段，由于高发病率和高死亡率，压力和焦虑在民众中普遍存在。此外，对冠状病毒的恐惧也特别受到社交媒体的推动。许多人开始寻求信仰和精神联系以获得慰藉。精神纽带和宗教信仰在应对疫情压力方面的作用已引起世界一些地区研究人员的关注。这项横断面调查旨在评估人们所经历的压力和焦虑症状的强度，以及通过建立精神联系能在多大程度上缓解这些症状。研究样本包括795名居住在沙特阿拉伯的受访者，其中男性占52%，女性占48%。简短的在线研究问卷收集了关于背景变量、DASS - 21焦虑和压力量表的数据，以及来自WHOQOL（SRBP）工具的项目，以评估精神信仰的使用情况。在调整人口统计学变量后，测试了多元回归模型以确定精神联系的作用。结果表明，在调整性别和年龄后，随着精神联系使用量每增加一个单位，参与者的焦虑症状减少（β = -0.27；P = 0.000）个单位，随着应对精神性每增加一个单位，参与者的压力症状减少（β = -0.36；P = 0.000）个单位。此外，女性经历焦虑和压力症状的风险分别比男性高[（β = 0.88；P = 0.01）和（β = 0.92；P = 0.000）]。年龄的增加分别使经历焦虑症状和压力症状的可能性降低（β = -0.75；P = 0.02）和（β = -0.11；P = 0.000）个单位。尽管β系数较小，但研究结果支持了精神联系的保护作用。沙特阿拉伯的社会和文化背景有利于与精神性和信仰建立深厚的联系。我们的研究结果支持了这样一个事实，即在新冠疫情初期，依赖精神联系有助于老年人应对过度的恐惧，并降低出现焦虑和压力症状的风险。女性和年轻参与者相对更容易出现这些症状。我们结合一些近期报告了类似关系的研究讨论了这些发现，并为未来研究提出了建议。
