[Source: PLOS One, full page: (LINK). Abstract, edited.]
OPEN ACCESS | PEER-REVIEWED | RESEARCH ARTICLE
The psychological distress and coping styles in the early stages of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic in the general mainland Chinese population: A web-based survey
Huiyao Wang , Qian Xia , Zhenzhen Xiong, Zhixiong Li, Weiyi Xiang, Yiwen Yuan, Yaya Liu, Zhe Li
Published: May 14, 2020 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233410
Abstract
As the epidemic outbreak of 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), general population may experience psychological distress. Evidence has suggested that negative coping styles may be related to subsequent mental illness. Therefore, we investigate the general population’s psychological distress and coping styles in the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak. A cross-sectional battery of surveys was conducted from February 1–4, 2020. The Kessler 6 psychological distress scale, the simplified coping style questionnaire and a general information questionnaire were administered on-line to a convenience sample of 1599 in China. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed to identify the influence factors of psychological distress. General population’s psychological distress were significant differences based on age, marriage, epidemic contact characteristics, concern with media reports, and perceived impacts of the epidemic outbreak (all p <0.001) except gender (p = 0.316). The population with younger age (F = 102.04), unmarried (t = 15.28), with history of visiting Wuhan in the past month (t = -40.86), with history of epidemics occurring in the community (t = -10.25), more concern with media reports (F = 21.84), perceived more impacts of the epidemic outbreak (changes over living situations, F = 331.71; emotional control, F = 1863.07; epidemic-related dreams, F = 1642.78) and negative coping style (t = 37.41) had higher level of psychological distress. Multivariate analysis found that marriage, epidemic contact characteristics, perceived impacts of the epidemic and coping style were the influence factors of psychological distress (all p <0.001). Epidemic of COVID-19 caused high level of psychological distress. The general mainland Chinese population with unmarried, history of visiting Wuhan in the past month, perceived more impacts of the epidemic and negative coping style had higher level of psychological distress in the early stages of COVID-19 epidemic. Psychological interventions should be implemented early, especially for those general population with such characteristics.
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Citation: Wang H, Xia Q, Xiong Z, Li Z, Xiang W, Yuan Y, et al. (2020) The psychological distress and coping styles in the early stages of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic in the general mainland Chinese population: A web-based survey. PLoS ONE 15(5): e0233410. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233410
Editor: Kenji Hashimoto, Chiba Daigaku, JAPAN
Received: March 25, 2020; Accepted: May 5, 2020; Published: May 14, 2020
Copyright: © 2020 Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.
Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; China; Society; Psychology.
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