The Association Between Psychological Flexibility, Health Anxiety and Coronavirus Anxiety During COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the well-being of communities by large. The exceptionally high infection and mortality rate of COVID-19 has led to an upsurge in dysfunctional anxiety related to the novel coronavirus. While researchers have examined the role of psychological resilience factors in mitigating the impact of COVID-19, there is a dearth of research exploring the impact of psychological flexibility on health and coronavirus anxiety. Thus, the present study examined the association of psychological flexibility, a psychological resilience factor, with health anxiety and coronavirus anxiety. A total of 101 participants (Male=49, Female=52) were recruited for this study ranging from 18-70 years of age, and standardized measures of Psychological Flexibility, Health Anxiety and Coronavirus Anxiety were administered via an online survey. Further, bivariate analyses revealed that higher levels of psychological flexibility were associated with lower levels of health and coronavirus anxiety. The study concluded that psychological flexibility is an important psychological resilience factor which might mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, specifically health anxiety and coronavirus anxiety.