The longitudinal association between Perceived Stress, PTSD Symptoms, and Post-Traumatic Growth during the COVID-19 Pandemic: the role of coping strategies and psychological inflexibility

Abstract

The present study investigates the mediating roles of psychological inflexibility and differential coping strategies on perceived stress and post-traumatic symptoms and growth in the context of COVID-19. Study one recruited 662 participants (54.8% women; Mage = 40.64 years, SD = 13.04) who completed a cross-sectional questionnaire. It was proposed that orientation to the problem, avoidance strategies, psychological inflexibility, and positive attitude were mediators for the positive association between perceived stress and PTSD symptoms. The fit indices for the path model were excellent: CFI = 0.977, TLI = 0.950, RMSEA = 0.057 [90%CI = 0.043–0.081], and SRMS = 0.042. Gender and stressful events encountered had indirect effects on the endogenous variables. In study two, 128 participants (57.8% women; Mage = 42.30, SD = 12.08) were assessed for post-traumatic growth one year later. Psychological inflexibility and orientation acted as mediators between perceived stress and PTSD symptoms. Furthermore, a novel path model was constructed in which psychological inflexibility and orientation to the problem as mediators for perceived stress and PTSD symptoms. The indices for the path model were excellent: CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.055 [90%CI = 0.001–0.144], and SRMS = 0.49. Furthermore, PTSD symptoms, psychological inflexibility, and orientation to the problem predicted post-traumatic growth. Specifically, both orientation to the problem (β = .06 [90%CI: .01;.13]) and psychological inflexibility (β = .14 [90%CI: .08;.26]) had an indirect effect on post-traumatic growth. Overall, these results significantly contribute to the literature as orientation to the problem positively predicted PTSD symptoms and post-traumatic growth one year later while psychological inflexibility predicted PTSD symptoms and less post-traumatic growth one year later. These results underline the importance of assessing both symptomology and psychological growth to determine adaptive coping strategies in specific contexts.

Positive Touch Deprivation during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Effects on Anxiety, Stress, and Depression among Italian General Population

“…The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan China and subsequently documented in more than 210 countries around the world, represented an emergency for international public health [ 1 ] of both the general population [ 2 , 3 , 4 ] and vulnerable groups [ 5 , 6 , 7 ].…”

The impact of family function on post-traumatic reactions of Chinese adolescents infected with COVID-19: a latent profile study

“…Qualitative research shows that many patients show obvious changes in different themes of post-traumatic growth such as coping strategies, existing growth, lessons learned from disease, new opportunities, and social growth after infection with COVID-19 ( 15 ). As a negative psychological reaction, PTSD, depression, anxiety and positive psychological results of PTG not only exist in the normal population under the background of COVID-19 ( 16 , 17 ), but also exist in COVID-19 patients ( 18 , 19 ).…”

Post-traumatic growth in people experiencing high post-traumatic stress during the COVID-19 pandemic: The protective role of psychological flexibility

“…That is, consistent with post-trauma processing theories and the inverse of the psychological flexibility model, people with higher PTS and greater avoidance of aversive trauma-related thoughts, feelings, and images, reported the lowest levels of PTG and meaning in life ( Kashdan & Kane, 2011 ). Only two studies have examined the relationship between psychological inflexibility and PTG during the pandemic ( Bruno et al, 2022 ; Yildiz, 2021 ). Bruno et al (2020) found that psychological inflexibility longitudinally predicted higher PTS and lower PTG one year after the first Italian lockdown.…”