The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is not only a threat to physical health but is also having severe impacts on mental health. Although increases in stress-related symptomatology and other adverse psycho-social outcomes, as well as their most important risk factors have been described, hardly anything is known about potential protective factors. Resilience refers to the maintenance of mental health despite adversity. To gain mechanistic insights about the relationship between described psycho-social resilience factors and resilience specifically in the current crisis, we assessed resilience factors, exposure to Corona crisis-specific and general stressors, as well as internalizing symptoms in a cross-sectional online survey conducted in 24 languages during the most intense phase of the lockdown in Europe (22 March to 19 April) in a convenience sample of N = 15,970 adults. Resilience, as an outcome, was conceptualized as good mental health despite stressor exposure and measured as the inverse residual between actual and predicted symptom total score. Preregistered hypotheses (osf.io/r6btn) were tested with multiple regression models and mediation analyses. Results confirmed our primary hypothesis that positive appraisal style (PAS) is positively associated with resilience (p < 0.0001). The resilience factor PAS also partly mediated the positive association between perceived social support and resilience, and its association with resilience was in turn partly mediated by the ability to easily recover from stress (both p < 0.0001). In comparison with other resilience factors, good stress response recovery and positive appraisal specifically of the consequences of the Corona crisis were the strongest factors. Preregistered exploratory subgroup analyses (osf.io/thka9) showed that all tested resilience factors generalize across major socio-demographic categories. This research identifies modifiable protective factors that can be targeted by public mental health efforts in this and in future pandemics.
Despite the growing study of adolescents' emotion regulation (ER) and its importance for developmental trajectories, research has focused mainly on psychopathology by contrast with positive functioning. The lack of adequate age measures on emotion regulation has been also largely recognized. The present study aims to explore psychometric properties and construct validity of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ-CA) (Gullone and Taffe, 2012) in a sample of 809 Portuguese adolescents. The Portuguese version (QRE-CA) showed adequate reliability and the Confirmatory Factorial Analysis presented a good fit confirming the two-factor model found by Gullone and Taffe (2012). Measurement invariance tests showed intergroup invariance for gender and school grade. Additionally, convergent validity showed positive associations between the reappraisal strategy and measures of positive psychological functioning (self-esteem and satisfaction with life). The suppression strategy presented negative associations with those same variables.Findings suggest that the QRE-CA is a valid and reliable measure for evaluating strategies of ER. Final considerations highlight the importance of extending research on adolescents' emotion regulation and positive functioning.
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is not only a threat to physical health but is also having severe impacts on mental health. While increases in stress-related symptomatology and other adverse psycho-social outcomes as well as their most important risk factors have been described, hardly anything is known about potential protective factors. Resilience refers to the maintenance of mental health despite adversity. In order to gain mechanistic insights about the relationship between described psycho-social resilience factors and resilience specifically in the current crisis, we assessed resilience factors, exposure to Corona crisis-specific and general stressors, as well as internalizing symptoms in a cross-sectional online survey conducted in 24 languages during the most intense phase of the lockdown in Europe (March 22nd to April 19th) in a convenience sample of N=15,970 adults. Resilience, as an outcome, was conceptualized as good mental health despite stressor exposure and measured as the inverse residual between actual and predicted symptom total score. Preregistered hypotheses (osf.io/r6btn) were tested with multiple regression models and mediation analyses. Results confirmed our primary hypothesis that positive appraisal style (PAS) is positively associated with resilience (p<0.0001). The resilience factor PAS also partly mediated the positive association between perceived social support and resilience, and its association with resilience was in turn partly mediated by the ability to easily recover from stress (both p<0.0001). In comparison with other resilience factors, good stress response recovery and positive appraisal specifically of the consequences of the Corona crisis were the strongest factors. Preregistered exploratory subgroup analyses (osf.io/thka9) showed that all tested resilience factors generalize across major socio-demographic categories. This research identifies modifiable protective factors that can be targeted by public mental health efforts in this and in future pandemics.
Scientific research on leisure has proven its contribution to physical and psychological well-being in adolescents, especially regarding the practice of structured leisure activities. Leisure is considered a privileged context for adolescents to develop and learn several developmental skills, such as emotion regulation (ER). Nevertheless, the relationship between leisure and ER has been under-researched in adolescents. The present cross-sectional study aims to test a conceptual model concerning the relationship of leisure attitudes and leisure satisfaction with adolescents’ positive functioning and to explore the role of emotion self-regulation strategies in that relationship. Thus, we hypothesized that leisure attitudes would be a predictor of leisure satisfaction; leisure satisfaction would be a predictor of positive functioning dimensions (self-esteem; satisfaction with life; psychological well-being); and the relationship between leisure satisfaction and positive functioning dimensions would be mediated by emotion self-regulation strategies [cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES)]. The participants in this study were 654 adolescents from 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, aged between 14 and 19 years old. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires. The structural equation analysis showed that leisure attitudes are a significant predictor of leisure satisfaction, and that leisure satisfaction significantly predicts all positive functioning dimensions. CR mediated the relationship between leisure satisfaction and self-esteem. These findings highlight the importance of developing positive attitudes toward leisure to increase adolescents’ levels of leisure satisfaction. This study also supports the importance of leisure satisfaction for achieving adolescents’ positive functioning. Future studies should continue to examine the role of emotion self-regulation strategies on leisure, especially regarding CR.
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