Pretorius Tyrone B, Padmanabhanunni Anita
Department of Psychology, University of the Western Cape, Bellville 7530, South Africa.
Healthcare (Basel). 2023 Jan 25;11(3):350. doi: 10.3390/healthcare11030350.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a major global stressor that has been associated with elevated risk of negative mental health symptoms. As a helping profession, our main task should be identifying factors that may shield individuals from the negative consequences of stress, rather than only focusing on the causes and symptoms of stress. One such factor, identified in the literature, is an individual's perception of their problem-solving skills. In this study we investigate the role of problem-solving appraisal in the association between perceived stress and psychological well-being. Participants were students ( = 322) who completed the Problem Solving Inventory, the Perceived Stress Scale, the short forms of the trait scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Beck Hopelessness Scale. The results demonstrate the health-sustaining benefits of problem-solving appraisal, as all dimensions of problem-solving appraisal (problem-solving confidence, approach-avoidance style, and problem-solving control) were directly associated with hopelessness and anxiety. The stress-buffering role of problem-solving appraisal with respect to hopelessness was demonstrated through the interaction between perceived stress and problem-solving appraisal. However, problem-solving appraisal did not buffer the effects of stress on anxiety. The findings indicate that problem-solving appraisal may be an important protective resource that could be beneficial for coping with other negative events and experiences beyond COVID-19. The implications of these findings for interventions are discussed.
新冠疫情是一个重大的全球性压力源，与心理健康出现负面症状的风险增加有关。作为一个助人的职业，我们的主要任务应该是识别那些可能使个体免受压力负面影响的因素，而不是只关注压力的成因和症状。文献中确定的一个这样的因素是个体对其解决问题能力的认知。在本研究中，我们调查了解决问题评估在感知压力与心理健康之间的关联中所起的作用。参与者为学生（= 322），他们完成了问题解决量表、感知压力量表、状态 - 特质焦虑量表特质量表的简版以及贝克绝望量表。结果表明了解决问题评估对健康的维持作用，因为解决问题评估的所有维度（解决问题的信心、趋近 - 回避风格和解决问题的控制）都与绝望和焦虑直接相关。通过感知压力与解决问题评估之间的相互作用，证明了解决问题评估对绝望具有压力缓冲作用。然而，解决问题评估并未缓冲压力对焦虑的影响。研究结果表明，解决问题评估可能是一种重要的保护资源，有助于应对新冠疫情之外的其他负面事件和经历。本文讨论了这些研究结果对干预措施的启示。
