214
Views
1
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Article

Optimism and fear of COVID-19 in higher education students: the mediating role of general anxiety

ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon & ORCID Icon
Pages 241-252 | Received 12 May 2021, Accepted 28 Apr 2022, Published online: 05 May 2022

References

  • Achdut, N., & Refaeli, T. (2020). Unemployment and psychological distress among young people during the covid‐19 pandemic: Psychological resources and risk factors. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(19), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197163
  • Ahorsu, D. K., Lin, C. Y., Imani, V., Saffari, M., Griffiths, M. D., & Pakpour, A. H. (2020). The fear of COVID-19 scale: Development and initial validation. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00270-8
  • Akdeniz, G., Kavakci, M., Gozugok, M., Yalcinkaya, S., Kucukay, A., & Sahutogullari, B. (2020). A survey of attitudes, anxiety status, and protective behaviors of the university students during the COVID-19 outbreak in Turkey. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11(July), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00695
  • Aristovnik, A., Keržič, D., Ravšelj, D., Tomaževič, N., & Umek, L. (2020). Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on life of higher education students: A global perspective. Sustainability (Switzerland), 12(20), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208438
  • Bártolo, A., Monteiro, S., & Pereira, A. (2017). Estrutura fatorial e validade de construto da escala Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) entre alunos universitários em Portugal. Cadernos de Saude Publica, 33(9), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-311X00212716
  • Beaton, D. E., Bombardier, C., Guillemin, F., & Ferraz, M. B. (2000). Guidelines for the process of cross-cultural adaptation of self-report measures. Spine, 25(24), 3186–3191. https://doi.org/10.1097/00007632-200012150-00014
  • Biber, D. D., Melton, B., & Czech, D. R. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on college anxiety, optimism, gratitude, and course satisfaction. Journal of American College Health, . https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2020.1842424
  • Bish, A., & Michie, S. (2010). Demographic and attitudinal determinants of protective behaviours during a pandemic: A review. British Journal of Health Psychology, 15(4), 797–824. https://doi.org/10.1348/135910710X485826
  • Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (1982). Control theory: A useful conceptual framework for personality-social, clinical, and health psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 92(1), 111–135. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.92.1.111
  • Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., & Segerstrom, S. C. (2010). Optimism. Clinical Psychology Review, 30 7 , 879–889. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.01.006
  • Chaturvedi, K., Vishwakarma, D. K., & Singh, N. (2021). COVID-19 and its impact on education, social life and mental health of students: A survey. Children and Youth Services Review, 121, 105866. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105866
  • Dolinski, D., Dolinska, B., Zmaczynska-Witek, B., Banach, M., & Kulesza, W. (2020). Unrealistic optimism in the time of coronavirus pandemic: May it help to kill, if so—whom: Disease or the person? Journal of Clinical Medicine, 9(5), 1464. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9051464
  • Galić, M., Mustapić, L., Šimunić, A., Sić, L., & Cipolletta, S. (2020). COVID-19 related knowledge and mental health: Case of Croatia. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(November), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.567368
  • Gjersing, L., Caplehorn, J. R., & Clausen, T. (2010). Cross-cultural adaptation of research instruments: Language, setting, time and statistical considerations. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 10(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-10-13
  • Gutiérrez-Carmona, A., Alday Mondaca, C., Urzúa, A., & Wlodarczyk, A. (2020). ¿Puede el optimismo mediar el efecto negativo de la ansiedad rasgo sobre el bienestar psicológico? Revista Interamericana de Psicología/Interamerican Journal of Psychology, 54(2), e916. https://doi.org/10.30849/ripijp.v54i2.916
  • Harper, C. A., Satchell, L. P., Fido, D., & Latzman, R. D. (2021). Functional fear predicts public health compliance in the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction 19, 1875–1888. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00281-5
  • Hayes, A. F. (2018). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (2nd ed.). Guilford Press. https://doi.org/10.1111/jedm.12050
  • Hedman, E., Lekander, M., Karshikoff, B., Ljótsson, B., Axelsson, E., & Axelsson, J. (2016). Health anxiety in a disease-avoidance framework: Investigation of anxiety, disgust and disease perception in response to sickness cues. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 125(7), 868–878. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000195
  • Jovančević, A., & Milićević, N. (2020). Optimism-pessimism, conspiracy theories and general trust as factors contributing to COVID-19 related behavior – A cross-cultural study. Personality and Individual Differences, 167(June), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110216
  • Kleiman, E. M., Chiara, A. M., Liu, R. T., Jager-Hyman, S. G., Choi, J. Y., & Alloy, L. B. (2017). Optimism and well-being: A prospective multi-method and multi-dimensional examination of optimism as a resilience factor following the occurrence of stressful life events. Cognition & Emotion, 31(2), 269–283. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2015.1108284
  • Li, H. Y., Cao, H., Leung, D. Y. P., & Mak, Y. W. (2020). The psychological impacts of a covid-19 outbreak on college students in China: A longitudinal study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(11), 3933. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17113933
  • Parlapani, E., Holeva, V., Voitsidis, P., Blekas, A., Gliatas, I., Porfyri, G. N., Golemis, A., Papadopoulou, K., Dimitriadou, A., Chatzigeorgiou, A. F., Bairachtari, V., Patsiala, S., Skoupra, M., Papigkioti, K., Kafetzopoulou, C., & Diakogiannis, I. (2020). Psychological and behavioral responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Greece. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11(August), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00821
  • Perz, C. A., Lang, B. A., & Harrington, R. (2022). Validation of the fear of COVID-19 scale in a US college sample. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 20, 273–283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00356-3
  • Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–891. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.40.3.879
  • Ribeiro, J. L. P., Pedro, L., & Marques, S. (2012). Dispositional optimism is unidimensional or bidimensional? The Portuguese revised life orientation test. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 15(3), 1259–1271. https://doi.org/10.5209/rev_SJOP.2012.v15.n3.39412
  • Saravanan, C., Mahmoud, I., Elshami, W., & Taha, M. H. (2020). Knowledge, anxiety, fear, and psychological distress about COVID-19 among university students in the United Arab Emirates. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11(October), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.582189
  • Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1985). Optimism, coping, and health: Assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies. Health Psychology, 4(3), 219–237. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.4.3.219
  • Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., & Bridges, M. W. (1994). Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism (and Trait Anxiety, Self-Mastery, and Self-Esteem): A reevaluation of the life orientation test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(6), 1063–1078. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.6.1063
  • Schiavon, C. C., Marchetti, E., Gurgel, L. G., Busnello, F. M., & Reppold, C. T. (2017). Optimism and hope in chronic disease: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 7(January), 2022. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.02022
  • Smith, T. W. (2006). Personality as risk and resilience in physical health. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(5), 227–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2006.00441.x
  • Sobol, M., Blachnio, A., & Przepiórka, A. (2020). Time of pandemic: Temporal perspectives related to compliance with public health regulations concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Social Science & Medicine, 265, 113408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113408
  • Son, C., Hegde, S., Smith, A., Wang, X., & Sasangohar, F. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 on college students’ mental health in the United States: Interview survey study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(9), e21279. doi:10.2196/21279
  • Soroya, S. H., Farooq, A., Mahmood, K., Isoaho, J., & Zara, S. E. (2021). From information seeking to information avoidance: Understanding the health information behavior during a global health crisis. Information Processing & Management, 58(2), 102440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2020.102440
  • Sousa, T. V., Viveiros, V., Chai, M. V., Vicente, F. L., Jesus, G., Carnot, M. J., Gordo, A. C., & Ferreira, P. L. (2015). Reliability and validity of the Portuguese version of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 13(1), 50. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-015-0244-2
  • Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B. W., & Löwe, B. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: The GAD-7. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166(10), 1092–1097. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092
  • Sundarasen, S., Chinna, K., Kamaludin, K., Nurunnabi, M., Baloch, G. M., Khoshaim, H. B., Hossain, S. F. A., & Sukayt, A. (2020). Psychological impact of covid-19 and lockdown among university students in Malaysia: Implications and policy recommendations. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(17), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176206
  • Tasso, A. F., Hisli Sahin, N., & San Roman, G. J. (2021). COVID-19 disruption on college students: Academic and socioemotional implications. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy, 13(1), 9–15. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000996
  • Taylor, S. (2019). The psychology of pandemics: Preparing for the next global outbreak of infectious disease. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Tommasi, M., Toro, F., Arnò, S., Carrieri, A., Conte, M. M., Devastato, M. D., Picconi, L., Sergi, M. R., & Saggino, A. (2020). Physical and Psychological Impact of the Phase One Lockdown for COVID-19 on Italians. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(December), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.563722
  • Trnka, R., & Lorencova, R. (2020). Fear, anger, and media-induced trauma during the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Czech Republic. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12(5), 546–549. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000675
  • Wang, C., Zhao, H., & Uno, A. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on anxiety in Chinese University students. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(May), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01168
  • Waqas, M., Hania, A., & Hongbo, L. (2020). Psychological predictors of anxious responses to the covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from Pakistan. Psychiatry Investigation, 17(11), 1096–1104. https://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2020.0167
  • Wiebe, D. J., & Fortenberry, K. T. (2006). Mechanisms relating personality and health. In M. E. Vollrath (Ed.), Handbook of Personality and Health. (pp. 137–156). John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470713860.ch6
  • Yu, X., Chen, J., Liu, J., Yu, X., & Zhao, K. (2015). Dispositional optimism as a mediator of the effect of rumination on anxiety. Social Behavior and Personality, 43(8), 1233–1242. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2015.43.8.1233

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.