The importance of mentalization, coping mechanisms, and perceived stress in the prediction of resilience of healthcare workers

ABSTRACT

Resilience is the process of overcoming stressors. Being able to examine the effect of the Covid epidemic on healthcare workers (HCWs) has provided us a unique opportunity to understand the impact of trauma on resilience. We aimed to investigate the relationship between stress, mentalization, and an individual’s coping capacity against a real risk (Covid-19) and evaluate the predictors of resilience. 302 HCWs have enrolled in the study and completed an online questionnaire assessing demographics, perceived stress, resilience, coping, and mentalization. We utilized statistical analysis together with a Random Forest classifier to analyze the interaction between these factors extensively. We applied ten times ten-fold cross-validation and plotted Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) with the calculated Area Under the Curve(AUC) score and identify the most important features. Our experiments showed that the Perceived stress scale has the strongest relationship with resilience. The subject’s awareness level of emotional states is an important factor that determines the level of resilience. Coping styles such as the decision of giving up is also a crucial indicator. We conclude that being aware of the risks and the mental states are the dominant factors behind the resilience levels of healthcare workers under pandemic conditions.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• mentalization
• stress
• coping
• random forest classifier

Acknowledgments

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.