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Published on: December 15, 2023
Social and psychological resources and COVID-19 related fear, threat and worry
Marsha Kim Huh1, Kevin Fitzpatrick1, Casey Harris1
1Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA.
Objectives:
The current study examines the relationship between social/psychological resources and COVID-related fear, threat, and worry.
Methods:
This work is based on data collected in March 23, 2020 from a national sample of 10,368 adults (ages 18 or older) living in the United States. The final sample of 10,368 was post-stratification weighted across gender, age, race, income, and geography (state) to ensure representativeness of the overall population of the United States.
Results:
Findings suggest some social and psychological resources are related to COVID-specific distress (fear/threat/worry), but depending on the resource, relationships vary in both direction and significance. On the one hand, strength of social ties and mastery of fate play a protective role in perceived distress (fear/threat/worry) related to COVID. On the other hand, community connectedness is significantly related to higher levels of COVID-specific fear, threat, and worry.
Conclusions:
The analyses provide some evidence of the nature of the relationships between social and psychological resources and perceived COVID-19 distress that vary by race and ethnicity. These and other relationships are explored and discussed in the context of improving ones well-being with mediating social and psychological resources.
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