Cargando…

Using Spiritual Connections to Cope With Stress and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, stress and anxiety were pervasive among the masses due to high morbidity and mortality. Besides the fear of coronavirus was also particularly driven by social media. Many people started to look for faith and spiritual connections to gain comfort. T...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Algahtani, Fahad D., Alsaif, Bandar, Ahmed, Ahmed A., Almishaal, Ali A., Obeidat, Sofian T., Mohamed, Rania Fathy, Kamel, Reham Mohammed, Gul, Iram, Hassan, Sehar un Nisa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9371003/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35967642
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.915290
_version_ 1784766997187264512
author Algahtani, Fahad D.
Alsaif, Bandar
Ahmed, Ahmed A.
Almishaal, Ali A.
Obeidat, Sofian T.
Mohamed, Rania Fathy
Kamel, Reham Mohammed
Gul, Iram
Hassan, Sehar un Nisa
author_facet Algahtani, Fahad D.
Alsaif, Bandar
Ahmed, Ahmed A.
Almishaal, Ali A.
Obeidat, Sofian T.
Mohamed, Rania Fathy
Kamel, Reham Mohammed
Gul, Iram
Hassan, Sehar un Nisa
author_sort Algahtani, Fahad D.
collection PubMed
description During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, stress and anxiety were pervasive among the masses due to high morbidity and mortality. Besides the fear of coronavirus was also particularly driven by social media. Many people started to look for faith and spiritual connections to gain comfort. The role of spiritual ties and religious beliefs in relation to coping with pandemic stress has acquired the attention of researchers in some parts of the world. This cross-sectional survey aimed at assessing the intensity of stress and anxiety symptoms experienced by people and how much they were alleviated by employing spiritual connections. The study sample comprises 795 respondents with 52% males and 48% females living in Saudi Arabia. The brief online study questionnaire collected data about background variables, anxiety and stress scale from DASS-21, and items from the WHOQOL (SRBP) instrument assessed the use of spiritual beliefs to cope. Multiple regression models were tested to determine the role of spiritual connections after adjusting demographic variables. Results illustrated that after adjusting for gender and age, participants’ anxiety symptoms decreased by (β = −0.27; p = 0.000) units with each unit increase in the use of spiritual connections, and participants’ stress symptoms reduce by (β = −0.36; p = 0.000) units with each unit increase in coping with spirituality. Additionally, females’ risk to experience anxiety and stress symptoms was more than males [(β = 0.88; p = 0.01) and (β = 0.92; p = 0.000)], respectively. An increase in age decreases the likelihood of experiencing anxiety symptoms and stress symptoms by (β = −0.75; p = 0.02) and (β = −0.11; p = 0.000) units, respectively. Findings support the protective role of spiritual connections despite small beta coefficients. The social and cultural context in Saudi Arabia favors deep-rooted connections with spirituality and faith. Our findings support the fact that the reliance on spiritual connections helped older people to deal with exaggerated fear during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and reduces the risk of experiencing anxiety and stress symptoms. Females and younger participants were relatively vulnerable to developing these symptoms. We discussed these findings considering some recent studies that reported similar relationships and made recommendations for future research.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9371003
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-93710032022-08-12 Using Spiritual Connections to Cope With Stress and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic Algahtani, Fahad D. Alsaif, Bandar Ahmed, Ahmed A. Almishaal, Ali A. Obeidat, Sofian T. Mohamed, Rania Fathy Kamel, Reham Mohammed Gul, Iram Hassan, Sehar un Nisa Front Psychol Psychology During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, stress and anxiety were pervasive among the masses due to high morbidity and mortality. Besides the fear of coronavirus was also particularly driven by social media. Many people started to look for faith and spiritual connections to gain comfort. The role of spiritual ties and religious beliefs in relation to coping with pandemic stress has acquired the attention of researchers in some parts of the world. This cross-sectional survey aimed at assessing the intensity of stress and anxiety symptoms experienced by people and how much they were alleviated by employing spiritual connections. The study sample comprises 795 respondents with 52% males and 48% females living in Saudi Arabia. The brief online study questionnaire collected data about background variables, anxiety and stress scale from DASS-21, and items from the WHOQOL (SRBP) instrument assessed the use of spiritual beliefs to cope. Multiple regression models were tested to determine the role of spiritual connections after adjusting demographic variables. Results illustrated that after adjusting for gender and age, participants’ anxiety symptoms decreased by (β = −0.27; p = 0.000) units with each unit increase in the use of spiritual connections, and participants’ stress symptoms reduce by (β = −0.36; p = 0.000) units with each unit increase in coping with spirituality. Additionally, females’ risk to experience anxiety and stress symptoms was more than males [(β = 0.88; p = 0.01) and (β = 0.92; p = 0.000)], respectively. An increase in age decreases the likelihood of experiencing anxiety symptoms and stress symptoms by (β = −0.75; p = 0.02) and (β = −0.11; p = 0.000) units, respectively. Findings support the protective role of spiritual connections despite small beta coefficients. The social and cultural context in Saudi Arabia favors deep-rooted connections with spirituality and faith. Our findings support the fact that the reliance on spiritual connections helped older people to deal with exaggerated fear during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and reduces the risk of experiencing anxiety and stress symptoms. Females and younger participants were relatively vulnerable to developing these symptoms. We discussed these findings considering some recent studies that reported similar relationships and made recommendations for future research. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-07-28 /pmc/articles/PMC9371003/ /pubmed/35967642 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.915290 Text en Copyright © 2022 Algahtani, Alsaif, Ahmed, Almishaal, Obeidat, Mohamed, Kamel, Gul and Hassan. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Algahtani, Fahad D.
Alsaif, Bandar
Ahmed, Ahmed A.
Almishaal, Ali A.
Obeidat, Sofian T.
Mohamed, Rania Fathy
Kamel, Reham Mohammed
Gul, Iram
Hassan, Sehar un Nisa
Using Spiritual Connections to Cope With Stress and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Using Spiritual Connections to Cope With Stress and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Using Spiritual Connections to Cope With Stress and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Using Spiritual Connections to Cope With Stress and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Using Spiritual Connections to Cope With Stress and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Using Spiritual Connections to Cope With Stress and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort using spiritual connections to cope with stress and anxiety during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9371003/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35967642
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.915290
work_keys_str_mv AT algahtanifahadd usingspiritualconnectionstocopewithstressandanxietyduringthecovid19pandemic
AT alsaifbandar usingspiritualconnectionstocopewithstressandanxietyduringthecovid19pandemic
AT ahmedahmeda usingspiritualconnectionstocopewithstressandanxietyduringthecovid19pandemic
AT almishaalalia usingspiritualconnectionstocopewithstressandanxietyduringthecovid19pandemic
AT obeidatsofiant usingspiritualconnectionstocopewithstressandanxietyduringthecovid19pandemic
AT mohamedraniafathy usingspiritualconnectionstocopewithstressandanxietyduringthecovid19pandemic
AT kamelrehammohammed usingspiritualconnectionstocopewithstressandanxietyduringthecovid19pandemic
AT guliram usingspiritualconnectionstocopewithstressandanxietyduringthecovid19pandemic
AT hassanseharunnisa usingspiritualconnectionstocopewithstressandanxietyduringthecovid19pandemic