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Does Positive Thinking Help during Difficult Pandemic Times? The Role of Positive Orientation in the Relationship between Fear of COVID-19 and Perceived Stress

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a huge challenge for the modern world. How people perceive themselves and their coping abilities is important for their mental health and well-being. One of the traits that may be important in effectively coping with difficulties is positive orientation: a stable cog...

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Autores principales: Dymecka, Joanna, Gerymski, Rafał, Machnik-Czerwik, Anna, Rogowska, Aleksandra M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9857485/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36661761
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13010011
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author Dymecka, Joanna
Gerymski, Rafał
Machnik-Czerwik, Anna
Rogowska, Aleksandra M.
author_facet Dymecka, Joanna
Gerymski, Rafał
Machnik-Czerwik, Anna
Rogowska, Aleksandra M.
author_sort Dymecka, Joanna
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has become a huge challenge for the modern world. How people perceive themselves and their coping abilities is important for their mental health and well-being. One of the traits that may be important in effectively coping with difficulties is positive orientation: a stable cognitive disposition that is the opposite of depression and is associated with a positive perception of oneself, one’s life, events, and the future. This study aimed to verify the role of positive orientation in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and perceived stress. A sample of 907 Polish people took part in this study. FOC-6, P Scale, and PSS-10 questionnaires were used in the presented cross-sectional study. The analysis showed that women scored higher in fear of COVID-19 and perceived stress scores than men (Cohen’s d indicated a moderate effect). There was no significant difference in the levels of positive orientation. P Scale results were significantly related to fear of COVID-19 (small effect) only for the whole studied sample, and not for women and men considered separately. Fear of COVID-19 was positively related to the perceived stress score (moderate effect). Positive orientation was negatively related to the PSS-10 scores (also moderate effect) for all tested groups. Fear of COVID-19 and positive orientation were significant predictors of perceived stress scores. The mediation effect of positive orientation was statistically significant, but the effect size was marginally small. Positive orientation is an important predictor of perceived stress, which could be related to the COVID-19 pandemic. People with a positive orientation better cope with the challenges of the pandemic and are optimistic about the future. Working on positive orientation can improve well-being and reduce tension, which is extremely important in difficult pandemic times.
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spelling pubmed-98574852023-01-21 Does Positive Thinking Help during Difficult Pandemic Times? The Role of Positive Orientation in the Relationship between Fear of COVID-19 and Perceived Stress Dymecka, Joanna Gerymski, Rafał Machnik-Czerwik, Anna Rogowska, Aleksandra M. Eur J Investig Health Psychol Educ Article The COVID-19 pandemic has become a huge challenge for the modern world. How people perceive themselves and their coping abilities is important for their mental health and well-being. One of the traits that may be important in effectively coping with difficulties is positive orientation: a stable cognitive disposition that is the opposite of depression and is associated with a positive perception of oneself, one’s life, events, and the future. This study aimed to verify the role of positive orientation in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and perceived stress. A sample of 907 Polish people took part in this study. FOC-6, P Scale, and PSS-10 questionnaires were used in the presented cross-sectional study. The analysis showed that women scored higher in fear of COVID-19 and perceived stress scores than men (Cohen’s d indicated a moderate effect). There was no significant difference in the levels of positive orientation. P Scale results were significantly related to fear of COVID-19 (small effect) only for the whole studied sample, and not for women and men considered separately. Fear of COVID-19 was positively related to the perceived stress score (moderate effect). Positive orientation was negatively related to the PSS-10 scores (also moderate effect) for all tested groups. Fear of COVID-19 and positive orientation were significant predictors of perceived stress scores. The mediation effect of positive orientation was statistically significant, but the effect size was marginally small. Positive orientation is an important predictor of perceived stress, which could be related to the COVID-19 pandemic. People with a positive orientation better cope with the challenges of the pandemic and are optimistic about the future. Working on positive orientation can improve well-being and reduce tension, which is extremely important in difficult pandemic times. MDPI 2023-01-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9857485/ /pubmed/36661761 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13010011 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Dymecka, Joanna
Gerymski, Rafał
Machnik-Czerwik, Anna
Rogowska, Aleksandra M.
Does Positive Thinking Help during Difficult Pandemic Times? The Role of Positive Orientation in the Relationship between Fear of COVID-19 and Perceived Stress
title Does Positive Thinking Help during Difficult Pandemic Times? The Role of Positive Orientation in the Relationship between Fear of COVID-19 and Perceived Stress
title_full Does Positive Thinking Help during Difficult Pandemic Times? The Role of Positive Orientation in the Relationship between Fear of COVID-19 and Perceived Stress
title_fullStr Does Positive Thinking Help during Difficult Pandemic Times? The Role of Positive Orientation in the Relationship between Fear of COVID-19 and Perceived Stress
title_full_unstemmed Does Positive Thinking Help during Difficult Pandemic Times? The Role of Positive Orientation in the Relationship between Fear of COVID-19 and Perceived Stress
title_short Does Positive Thinking Help during Difficult Pandemic Times? The Role of Positive Orientation in the Relationship between Fear of COVID-19 and Perceived Stress
title_sort does positive thinking help during difficult pandemic times? the role of positive orientation in the relationship between fear of covid-19 and perceived stress
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9857485/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36661761
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13010011
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