Coping Styles, Mental Health, and the COVID-19 Quarantine: A Nationwide Survey in Poland

Agata Kołodziejczyk; Błazej Misiak; Dorota Szcześniak; Julian Maciaszek; Marta Ciułkowicz; Dorota Łuc; Tomasz Wieczorek; Karolina Fila-Witecka; Sylwia Chladzinska-Kiejna; Joanna Rymaszewska

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.625355

Coping Styles, Mental Health, and the COVID-19 Quarantine: A Nationwide Survey in Poland

Front Psychiatry. 2021 Mar 11:12:625355. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.625355. eCollection 2021.

Affiliations

¹ Division of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland.
² Department of Genetics, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland.
⁴ Practice of Family Doctors M.V. Domanscy, Wroclaw, Poland.

Abstract

Background: The outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 that began from March 2020 is yet to be contained. Consequences of the ongoing pandemic may have a negative impact on the mental health of affected individuals. This particularly refers to those quarantined. Since the COVID-19 pandemic is currently one of the biggest health issues worldwide, a higher demand emerges for research concentrating on the worsening of psychological well-being among the general and the quarantined population, as well as on individual coping strategies that may moderate the occurrence of psychopathologies. Method: Data were collected within the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland. Participants represented quarantine (+) and quarantine (-) groups. Quarantine (+) group, different from quarantine (-), consisted of people who experienced it themselves or someone close to them did after contacting an infected individual. To measure psychopathological symptoms a General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) was used. For measuring PTSD symptoms, the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) was used. This study followed the coping strategies manifested among the participants using the MiniCope questionnaire. Results: A total of 2,036 individuals participated in this study. Quarantine (+) individuals had significantly higher total and subscales GHQ-28 scores (anxiety, insomnia, and somatic symptoms) as well as a higher IES-R arousal score. The quarantine (+) individuals were more likely to use self-distraction as a coping strategy. This research identified positive and negative correlations between presented coping styles and manifested psychopathology. Conclusion: This nationwide study suggests occurrence of negative effects on mental health due to the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine. It is observed on most of the measured psychopathological symptoms. The present research provides a line of action that should be followed in the future in case of another epidemic and in the event restrictions like quarantine have to be introduced again.

Keywords: COVID-19; coping styles; mental health; quarantine; stress.