International Journal of Stress Management

Public sentiments toward the COVID-19 pandemic: Insights from the academic literature review and Twitter analytics.
The recent coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has severely impacted nations across the globe. Not only has it created economic shocks, but also long-term impacts on the social and psychological behaviors of the public. This can be attributed to the severity of the pandemic and because of the preventive and control measures such as global lockdowns, social distancing, and self-isolation that the governments imposed. Previous studies have reported significant changes in human emotions and behaviors are used to measure public sentiments about certain phenomena (such as the recent pandemic). The present study aims to study the public’s sentiments during the COVID-19 outbreak based on an analytics review of public tweets highlighting changes in emotions. A data set of 58,320 tweets extracted from Twitter and 61 academic articles was explored to analyze behavioral and emotional changes during previous and current pandemic situations. We chose the research process approach—COVID-19 (RPA-COV) approach, which was combined with the literature-based thematic analysis (LBTA) and the COVID-19 Twitter analytics (COVTA). The sentiments’ analysis results were coupled with word-tree analysis and highlighted that the public showed more highly neutral, positive, and mixed emotions than negative ones. The analysis pointed that people may react differently on Twitter as compared to real-life circumstances. The present study makes a significant contribution toward understanding how the public expresses their sentiments in pandemic situations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Gain from pain: Exploring vicarious posttraumatic growth and its facilitators among health care workers across two consecutive lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This study examined the potential facilitators of vicarious posttraumatic growth (VPTG; i.e., secondary traumatic stress symptoms—STS, resilience, coping strategies), the interspecialty differences in VPTG among medical (i.e., physicians and nurses) and nonmedical health care workers (HCWs; i.e., psychologists and social workers) across two consecutive lockdowns (T1 and T2), and the mediating role of the coping strategies in the STS–VPTG relationship. A sample of 1,076 HCWs (752 medical and 324 nonmedical) completed a web-based survey during two lockdowns. The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory was used to measure VPTG, whereas the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale, the Brief Resilience Scale, and the Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory were used to assess potential VPTG indicators. At T2, after controlling for gender and age, all participants reported significantly lower STS scores. Regarding PTGI scores, after controlling for gender and age, an interaction effect was observed between time point and specialty: At T1, the nonmedical HCWs reported higher PTGI scores compared to the medical HCWs, whereas at T2 the medical HCWs reported higher PTGI scores compared to the nonmedical HCWs. VPTG was positively predicted by time point (higher scores in T2), Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale intrusive symptoms, and the coping strategies of active coping, instrumental support, positive reframing, religion, and denial, and negatively predicted by gender, education, and substance use. These coping strategies fully mediated the relationship between intrusion and VPTG. Policies should enhance resources for HCWs at risk of STS and promote VPTG as an important contribution to their ability to deliver high-quality care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
“Losing it” in the wake of a pandemic: The interactive effects of fear of COVID-19 virus and emotional regulation on paranoid cognition and outcomes.
Drawing from the cognitive appraisal theory of stress and coping, this study examines and tests a moderated mediation model of the detrimental effects of fear of the COVID-19 virus. We examine paranoid cognition as an explanatory mechanism to help unveil how fear of the COVID-19 virus creates higher anxiety and lower life satisfaction. We also hypothesize that an individual’s emotional regulation capacity moderates the fear of the COVID-19 virus and paranoid cognition relationship. Using a three-wave and temporally segregated research design (n = 271), we collected online data from working adults belonging to Pakistan. Our findings support the moderated mediated model whereby fear of the COVID-19 virus results in promoting higher anxiety and lower life satisfaction via paranoid cognition at low levels of emotional regulation. Our findings suggest practical implications for organizations and future avenues for researchers to combat this prevailing global health crisis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Longitudinal associations between COVID-19 stress and mental health symptoms among university faculty and staff in Canada.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the academic work environment. Studies have documented cross-sectional associations between COVID-related stress and mental health symptoms in university faculty and staff. However, longitudinal studies that can establish temporal associations are needed. Further, it is important to determine if relations to mental health symptoms are driven by worries about COVID-19 (i.e., perceptions of stress) or actual impacts of COVID-19 across domains of health, job, and relationships. The present study included 100 faculty and 265 staff at a medium-sized Canadian University who completed an adapted version of the electronic U-Flourish well-being survey at two time points (October, 2020 and March, 2021). Cross-lagged panel modeling provided evidence that levels of COVID-19 worries and COVID-19 impacts at baseline significantly positively predicted follow-up levels of anxiety over and above baseline levels. Further, baseline levels of anxiety were positively associated with follow-up levels of COVID-19 worries, but not with follow-up COVID-19 impacts. In contrast, none of the cross-lagged associations with depressive symptoms were significant. We suggest from these results that post-COVID-19 mental health recovery can be promoted by academic leadership in two main ways. First, reducing the impact of COVID-19 on anxiety could be achieved through strategies that enhance individuals’ sense of control and predictability in their environment, including clear, consistent, and consolidated communication. Second, reducing worry about COVID-19 for faculty and staff with preexisting mental health symptoms might be achieved by broadening access to mental health support. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Does armed conflict exposure predict psychotic experiences in the general population? An experience sampling study.
There is mounting evidence that exposure to psychological stress and trauma increases risk of subsequent psychotic experiences (PE). However, we lack a clear understanding of the relationships between histories of trauma, stressful events in adulthood, and PE. In the present study, our aim was to investigate whether trauma history augments the risk of experiencing PE when exposed to later stressors in adulthood. We sought to address this by examining the relationship between exposure to rocket-warning sirens and PE during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, using experience sampling. Our sample consisted of 97 healthy Israeli civilians who reported their experiences via smartphone twice daily for 30 days. We conducted multilevel models with time and siren exposure as predictors to estimate PE during the conflict. Siren exposure elicited PE, and PE decreased over time as the conflict persisted. People who had experienced previous trauma in adulthood were more likely to have PE when exposed to sirens compared with people who had experienced childhood trauma. Our current findings are broadly consistent with contemporary models of psychosis, which suggest that stress is involved in its aetiology and could have important implications for early detection and intervention in psychosis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
The effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy for prolonged grief symptoms in children and adolescents: A systematic review.
Children and adolescents who experience the loss of a beloved one in traumatic circumstances can experience prolonged grief symptoms, characterized by symptomatology that may alter the grieving process, impair global functioning, and interact with cognitive development. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been showing significant results in treating grief-related issues. The present systematic review assessed the effectiveness of CBT for prolonged grief symptoms in the pediatric population. This study was carried out by two independent reviewers who searched electronic databases through a combination of keywords and a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of 20 studies were selected and data were synthesized in these categories: characteristics of the participants; specificities of the instruments; effectiveness of CBT. The results of this systematic review highlighted significant improvements in prolonged grief symptoms and global functioning following CBT. No significant age, gender, or ethnicity differences were found in most studies. The Inventory of Prolonged Grief for Children/Adolescents and the Inventory of Complicated Grief–Revised for Children appear to be the pediatric population’s most sensitive prolonged grief measures. The treatments were adapted based on various contextual and structural factors without losing clinical significance. Significant effect sizes were found for primary and most secondary outcomes. This systematic review underlines the effectiveness of CBT for prolonged symptoms in the pediatric population. Nonetheless, the included studies had a certain degree of heterogeneity, and their quality varied due to some biases. A validation procedure of standard methodologies for prolonged grief symptoms in children and adolescents is required to establish shared directions both in research and clinical settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
The protecting effect of team support for hospital nurses working while ill: A cross-level moderated mediation model.
This study tested a cross-level moderated mediation model depicting the dynamism of individual resource loss through sickness presenteeism precipitated by long working hours and resource gain from group-level team support and the consequent effect on turnover intention over time. Employing a two-wave survey with 4 months in between, data were obtained from 294 nurses (37 teams) working in 12 hospitals across Taiwan. The hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that presenteeism partially mediated the effects of working long hours on later turnover intention. Moreover, group-level team support moderated the presenteeism–turnover linkage. Specifically, the damaging effect of working while ill on heightened-turnover intention was drastically attenuated for those with high team support. Our cross-level moderated mediation model has thus identified team support as a viable resource that can alleviate the damages of working in precarious conditions and help hospitals to retain nurses. We discussed the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings in the context of resource loss and gain, especially when stress and burnout are highly prevalent for the health care professions in the postpandemic era. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Expanding deep acting: Effects of engagement and disengagement deep acting on emotional exhaustion.
Despite a well-supported and consistent link with surface acting, emotional exhaustion has routinely displayed an unclear and mixed relationship with deep acting. The purpose of this study was to gather insight into this ambiguity. Using a multiphasic sample (n = 207) and drawing upon the process model of emotion regulation, we tested whether deep acting may encompass two distinct dimensions, namely engagement regulation (i.e., connecting with the emotional source) and disengagement regulation (i.e., avoiding the emotional source), and whether these two distinct strategies could explain the inconsistent linkages with emotional exhaustion. Results from Hotelling–Williams comparisons, confirmatory factor analysis, and regression show support for a three-factor model of engagement, disengagement, and surface acting, particularly as these relate to emotional exhaustion. The appropriateness, measurement, and insights provided by a more nuanced and modern approach to emotional labor strategies are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

International Journal of Stress Management - Vol 31, Iss 1