Anxiety and Coping Stress Strategies in Researchers During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The current COVID-19 pandemic has affected the whole world, leading to changes in one's personal and working life. Researchers have undergone extensive changes in their roles, mainly in the area of health care, with research into the virus now the priority.AimTo assess the anxiety, depression, stress, fears, and coping strategies of Portuguese researchers during the COVID-19 pandemic.Participants and MethodsA total of 243 researchers, with an average age of 37.9 ± 9.6, participated in an online questionnaire. The study was performed between 1 June 2021 and 11 August 2021. The questionnaire included depression, anxiety, and stress (DASS-21), fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S), and coping inventory for stressful situations (CISS).ResultsThe findings suggest being female and younger seem to be related to more significant fears. Singles and younger researchers showed higher values of stress, depression, and anxiety. Research areas, such as medical and health sciences, presented higher levels in the DASS-21 depression and stress scale (p < 0.05). Also, the results showed a moderate or moderate strong significant positive linear relationship between the scales (p < 0.001): DASS-21 stress, DASS-21 anxiety, and DASS-21 depression (r > 0.70); CISS-21 emotional-oriented with DASS-21 stress (r = 0.683), DASS-21 depression (r = 0.622), and DASS-21 anxiety (r = 0.557); and emotional fear and cognitive fear (r = 0.652).ConclusionThe findings of this study support the growing concern for the psychological well-being of researchers and the need for intervention with more extensive and diverse studies.

Anxiety, depression, stress and fear of COVID-19 in non-syndromic oral cleft children' parents and caregivers

“…And also founded associations between fear of COVID-19 and higher scores of these symptoms [50-52, 54, 56, 57]. Furthermore there was strong correlation between instruments [51,54,57]. However, it should be noted that such association measures may changed over time.…”

“…Thus, its able to infer that greater mental problems individuals are more afraid of COVID-19. Even though it is a relatively new scale, there are some studies [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] that used in conjunction FC-19S with the DASS-21. And also founded associations between fear of COVID-19 and higher scores of these symptoms [50-52, 54, 56, 57].…”

Perspectivas da Utilização de Teoria da Mente para o Reconhecimento e Intervenção de Estresse Ocupacional

“…As condições estressantes, nas quais as equipes de saúde têm experimentado no mundo todo, principalmente durante a pandemia de COVID-19 [9], podem gerar falhas de segurança no uso correto de EPIs (Equipamento de Proteção Individual), no atendimento a pacientes infectados, colocando em risco a saúde do profissional, da sua equipe, bem como de seus familiares [10]. O editorial da Occupational Medicine, apontou que os grupos ocupacionais da área da saúde são considerados os grupos de maior risco frente ao enfrentamento de COVID-19 [11].…”

Occupational Stress Monitoring Using Biomarkers and Smartwatches: A Systematic Review

“…There are several standard questionnaires that are filled in by the participants using different scores to identify health workers' stress after the pandemic as suggested by refs. [17,18].…”

“…The identification of stress is based on the application of self-report scale questionnaires. Some samples follow [17,18]…”