The mediating role of hope in relation with fear of COVID‐19 and mental health: A study on tertiary level students of Rajshahi District

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) is influential in all parts of people's lives, specifically psychological states due to the fear related to the pandemic. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the mediating role of hope in the connection between the fear of COVID‐19 and mental health among tertiary college students of Rajshahi district during the COVID‐19 disease. METHOD: A cross‐sectional survey was conducted among tertiary college students a sample of 498 participants (53.4% females and 46.6% males) ranged between ages 19 and 31 (M = 22.03 ± 1.92) and participants filled out the fear of COVID‐19 Scale, Trait Hope Scale, and General Health Questionnaire. RESULT: In the case of correlation analysis, fear of COVID‐19 is reversely correlated with mental health, while lower but positive correlations were found with hope. Findings from the process macro v3.5 by Hayes analysis for the study model indicated that hope mediated in the relationship between the fear of COVID‐19 and mental health controlling for gender, and socioeconomic status, and the hypothesized model explained approximately 27% of the variance in mental health. CONCLUSION: Overall, the findings suggest that a high level of mental health is impacted by a low level of fear of COVID‐19. Additionally, a low level of fear of COVID‐19 contributes to increasing levels of hope, which enhances mental health.