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Stress, coping, and quality of life in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic

While research has widely explored stress, coping, and quality of life (QOL) individually and the potential links between them, a critical dearth exists in the literature regarding these constructs in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study aims to identify the salient stressors experienced,...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wakeel, Fathima, Hannah, Jacelyn, Gorfinkel, Leah
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10171688/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37163470
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277741
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author Wakeel, Fathima
Hannah, Jacelyn
Gorfinkel, Leah
author_facet Wakeel, Fathima
Hannah, Jacelyn
Gorfinkel, Leah
author_sort Wakeel, Fathima
collection PubMed
description While research has widely explored stress, coping, and quality of life (QOL) individually and the potential links between them, a critical dearth exists in the literature regarding these constructs in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study aims to identify the salient stressors experienced, describe the coping strategies used, and examine the relationships between stressors, coping, and QOL among individuals during the pandemic. Data are from a sample of 1,004 respondents who completed an online survey. Key measures included stressful life events (SLEs), coping strategies, and the physical and psychological health domains of QOL. Staged multivariate linear regression analyses examined the relationships between SLEs and the two QOL domains, controlling for sociodemographic and pre-existing health conditions and testing for the effects of coping strategies on these relationships. The most common SLEs experienced during the pandemic were a decrease in financial status, personal injury or illness, and change in living conditions. Problem-focused coping (β = 0.42, σ = 0.13, p < 0.001 for physical QOL; β = 0.57, σ = 0.12, p < 0.001 for psychological QOL) and emotion-focused coping (β = 0.86, σ = 0.13, p < 0.001 for psychological QOL) were significantly related to higher levels of QOL, whereas avoidant coping (β = –0.93, σ = 0.13, p < 0.001 for physical QOL; β = -1.33, σ = 0.12, p < 0.001 for psychological QOL) was associated with lower QOL. Avoidant coping partially mediated the relationships between experiencing SLEs and lower physical and psychological QOL. Our study informs clinical interventions to help individuals adopt healthy behaviors to effectively manage stressors, especially large-scale, stressful events like the pandemic. Our findings also call for public health and clinical interventions to address the long-term impacts of the most prevalent stressors experienced during the pandemic among vulnerable groups.
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spelling pubmed-101716882023-05-11 Stress, coping, and quality of life in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic Wakeel, Fathima Hannah, Jacelyn Gorfinkel, Leah PLoS One Research Article While research has widely explored stress, coping, and quality of life (QOL) individually and the potential links between them, a critical dearth exists in the literature regarding these constructs in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study aims to identify the salient stressors experienced, describe the coping strategies used, and examine the relationships between stressors, coping, and QOL among individuals during the pandemic. Data are from a sample of 1,004 respondents who completed an online survey. Key measures included stressful life events (SLEs), coping strategies, and the physical and psychological health domains of QOL. Staged multivariate linear regression analyses examined the relationships between SLEs and the two QOL domains, controlling for sociodemographic and pre-existing health conditions and testing for the effects of coping strategies on these relationships. The most common SLEs experienced during the pandemic were a decrease in financial status, personal injury or illness, and change in living conditions. Problem-focused coping (β = 0.42, σ = 0.13, p < 0.001 for physical QOL; β = 0.57, σ = 0.12, p < 0.001 for psychological QOL) and emotion-focused coping (β = 0.86, σ = 0.13, p < 0.001 for psychological QOL) were significantly related to higher levels of QOL, whereas avoidant coping (β = –0.93, σ = 0.13, p < 0.001 for physical QOL; β = -1.33, σ = 0.12, p < 0.001 for psychological QOL) was associated with lower QOL. Avoidant coping partially mediated the relationships between experiencing SLEs and lower physical and psychological QOL. Our study informs clinical interventions to help individuals adopt healthy behaviors to effectively manage stressors, especially large-scale, stressful events like the pandemic. Our findings also call for public health and clinical interventions to address the long-term impacts of the most prevalent stressors experienced during the pandemic among vulnerable groups. Public Library of Science 2023-05-10 /pmc/articles/PMC10171688/ /pubmed/37163470 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277741 Text en © 2023 Wakeel et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wakeel, Fathima
Hannah, Jacelyn
Gorfinkel, Leah
Stress, coping, and quality of life in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic
title Stress, coping, and quality of life in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full Stress, coping, and quality of life in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr Stress, coping, and quality of life in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Stress, coping, and quality of life in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_short Stress, coping, and quality of life in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort stress, coping, and quality of life in the united states during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10171688/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37163470
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277741
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