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The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
'With a Little Help from My Friends': Emotional Intelligence, Social Support, and Distress during the COVID-19
Dorota Kornas-Biela1, Klaudia Martynowska1, Leehu Zysberg2
1Institute of Pedagogy, The John Paul Catholic University of Lublin, 20-950 Lublin, Poland.
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic presented a global existential social and health challenge, with individuals suffering mentally and psychologically. College and university students are young adults, typically away from their natural support systems; with pandemic-imposed measures such as isolation, they may have been at higher risk of experiencing negative psychological outcomes. The study tested a model in which social support mediated the association between emotional intelligence (EI) and a latent factor representing general mental distress at the height of the COVID-19 crisis in Poland. One hundred and fifty-nine young adults filled in measures of trait EI, psychological and instrumental social support, three distress measures (depression, anxiety, and stress), and demographics. The results supported a model in which psychological social support (but not instrumental social support) mediated the association between trait EI and a factor representing all three distress measures. The results shed light on how individual and social resources work together to help maintain psychological integrity in times of crisis. They add to recent results on the differential effects of psychological-emotional and instrumental social support on distress and well-being.
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