Coping and Anxiety During Lockdown in Spain: The Role of Perceived Impact and Information Sources

Abstract

Background/Purpose

In the context of COVID-19 lockdowns, extant research suggests that secondary coping (a strategy aimed at adjusting oneself self to the stressor) is more robustly associated with better mental health than primary coping (a strategy aimed at adjusting the stressor to oneself). We investigated whether these findings are generalizable to Spain—one of the most severely affected countries at that time. We also tested whether the link between secondary coping and mental health (as measured by anxiety) can be accounted for by how individuals perceive the COVID-19 impact (ie, perceived life changes and personal global impact) and how frequently they use traditional and social media to check COVID-19-related information.

Methods

A diverse community sample (N = 408), collected during the first lockdown in Spain (early April 2020), completed a multi-measure online survey including the targeted variables.

Results

Secondary coping outperformed primary coping in predicting reduced anxiety during the lockdown in Spain. Moreover, lower perceived life changes from COVID-19 and reduced personal global impact from COVID-19 both mediated the negative secondary coping-anxiety relationship. No indirect effects emerged for either conventional or social media exposure.

Conclusion

These results (a) strengthen the cross-cultural validity of the link between secondary coping and anxiety and (b) advance our understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying this association.

Keywords:

• secondary coping
• COVID-19 life changes
• anxiety
• media exposure
• Spanish lockdown

Data Sharing Statement

The data of this research are available at https://osf.io/phacm/?view_only=8a457b7dba414cdbb69e2b69c7f20f98.

Ethics Statement

This research was conducted in conformity with the ethical guidelines of the responsible institution and the Declaration of Helsinki. All procedures received ethical approval from the responsible academic institution (Research Project Protocol # 2020-UNI-0211).

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.