Socio-emotional Strengths Against Psychopathology and Suicidal Ideation in Fear of Covid-19

Abstract

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused a global health crisis. It also leads to different types of psychosocial problems in society as a result of preventive health measures and the disease itself. Among others, psychopathological symptoms and suicide behaviors have increased. The PsicorecurSOS COVID-19 online protocol was designed. At baseline, 1,020 Spanish adults were assessed, during confinement, for sociodemographics, fear of COVID-19, anxious-depressive symptoms, covitality, and suicidal ideation. Reliability, descriptive, and frequency analyses were carried out, and the computer tool SPSS PROCESS was used to carry out a conditional process analysis (model 59). A total of 595 participants were included (58.30% response rate from baseline; mean age = 37.18 [SD = 13.30]; 72.44% female). Regarding suicidal ideation, 12% responded differently to “never,” 19.3% exceeded the cutoff point on the anxiety scale, and 24% on the depression scale. Moderate mediation analysis explained 27% of the variance in suicidal ideation. In addition, the indirect effect of moderate mediation was significant (b = -.003, SE = .002 with the presence of covitality; and b = .01, SE = .003 absence of covitality). Sex and age did not influence the overall outcome of the model. The data from this study can serve as a starting point for generating social and health treatment initiatives based on self-examination of anxiety-depressive symptoms and increasing socio-emotional skills in order to prevent and alleviate the psychosocial effects of the pandemic.

Mental Pain, Psychological Distress, and Suicidal Ideation During the COVID-19 Emergency: the Moderating Role of Tolerance for Mental Pain

“…Findings are also consistent with a recent study conducted on a US national sample of 10,368 adults during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, in which depressive symptomatology, previously associated with mental pain, was shown to be a significant predictor of suicidality, while psychological resources, previously associated with mental pain tolerance, functioned as a protective factor (Fitzpatrick et al, 2020). Results are also aligned with another study conducted during the first lockdown in a sample of 1020 Spanish in which increased levels of fear of COVID-19, and lower interpersonal skills and resources-such as self-efficacy, social support, emotional self-regulation, etc.-were related to higher suicidal ideation (Soto-Sanz et al, 2020). Finally, the findings of this study are also in line with the broader literature highlighting positive psychological resources associated with resilience as important protective factors for adaptive psychological responses to the COVID-19 pandemic (Pakenham et al, 2020;Satici et al, 2020).…”