FACILITATING AND COMPLICATING FACTORS IN COPING WITH FEAR OF COVID-19

Abstract

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has affected almost all countries' people and affected them in many ways. Turkey has been one of the countries most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. In this study, it is aimed to examine facilitating and complicating factors in coping with the fear of COVID-19. Subjects and methods: This study was conducted with 530 people (305 females, 225 males) living in different regions of Turkey and reached online via google e-forms. Sociodemographic information of the participants was collected, and the Fear of Covid-19 Scale (FCV-19S), Short Version of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS-12), The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and The World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) scales were administered. All statistical analyzes were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics. T-test, One Way Anova and Linear Regression analysis were used to analyze the collected data. Results: In this study, the participants reported that watching movies, reading books, and listening to music were the most important facilitating factors in coping with Fear of COVID-19. Covid-19 fear scores were analyzed in terms of some demographic variables. According to the results, there was no difference between COVID-19 fear scores in terms of gender, having a chronic disease or not, knowing someone diagnosed with Covid-19 in their immediate vicinity, and the region they lived in. we found that Prospective anxiety, inhibitory anxiety, state anxiety, and psychological health were significant predictors of Covid-19 fear. However, trait anxiety, physical health, social relationships and environment were not significant predictors of Covid-19 fear. All these variables together explained 25% of the variance in the model. Conclusion: Although this study has some limitations, it has an important place in the literature in revealing the facilitating and complicating factors in dealing with the fear of Covid -19. It mediates the provision of recommendations to policy makers and mental health professionals for providing psychological support services to individuals adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic process. © 2022 Medicinska Naklada Zagreb. All rights reserved.