engleski

Overwhelmed by the pandemic: The effects of the coronavirus pandemic and earthquake stress on psychological well-being in Croatia

Background: Fundamental beliefs about the world as a safe and predictive place may be severely “shattered” when people experience demanding stressful and traumatic events. Research has shown that those who experience more severe stress may also experience more profound worldview changes and mental health difficulties. COVID-19 crisis has faced the world with circumstances that go well beyond everything we have seen so far. Besides experiencing the pandemic, the citizens of Zagreb, Croatia were additionally challenged by a devastating earthquake in March 2020. Objective: We compared emotional difficulties in those citizens affected by the pandemic only and those who experienced the earthquake as well. We expected a significant cumulative effect of stress on emotional difficulties but also hypothesized that the relationship between the intensity of stress caused by the two major stressors and resulting emotional difficulties would be partially mediated by worldview changes people experienced. Method: An online survey with a probabilistic sample of 1270 Croatian adults (aged 18-74) was conducted and 50.16 % experienced the earthquake in Zagreb. Results: The path analysis suggested that pandemic stress predicted emotional difficulties and the worldview changes partially mediated that relationship. Nevertheless, the mediated relationship was weaker for those more resilient. These results hold true for both participants who experienced the earthquake, and those who did not. However, for those who experienced the earthquake, there was no effect of earthquake stress on emotional difficulties above that produced by the pandemic stress. Conclusions: The results suggest that pandemic stress had a major effect on people’s fundamental beliefs and emotional difficulties.

pandemic ; earthquake ; stress ; mental health ; worldview changes

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