Perceptions and attitudes of medical students regarding the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and relationships with personality traits and psychological resilience: COVID-19 and medical students

Ece Yazla; Ahmet Alp  Karakasli; Unsal  Aydinoglu; Elvan  Ozalp

doi:10.28982/josam.7648

Authors

Ece Yazla Department of Psychiatry, Hitit University Faculty of Medicine, Corum, Turkey https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7120-9333
Ahmet Alp Karakasli Department of Psychiatry, Hitit University Faculty of Medicine, Corum, Turkey https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1472-1437
Unsal Aydinoglu Department of Psychiatry, Hitit University Faculty of Medicine, Corum, Turkey https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5261-8687
Elvan Ozalp Private Psychiatric Practice, Ankara, Turkey https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9618-8148

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.28982/josam.7648

Keywords:

Covid-19 pandemic, personality, resilience, medical school students

Abstract

Background/Aim: COVID-19 adversely affects mental health. We aimed to investigate COVID-19-related perceptions and attitudes in medical school students and to assess possible relationships with students’ psychological resilience levels and personality traits.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out with 186 students in medical school at Hitit University Faculty of Medicine from March 18, 2021 to May 27, 2021. The sociodemographic form, perceptions and attitudes related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Eysenck Personality Inventory (short form), and the Brief Psychological Resilience Scale were delivered to the students via mobile phone or e-mail and data were collected online.

Results: In the COVID-19 perception scale, the assessment of dangerousness was found to be significantly higher among those living with at-risk individuals (P=0.026). In the perception of control subscale, personal control was found to be significantly higher in students who did not live with at-risk individuals (P=0.018). In the COVID-19 avoidance attitudes scale, behavioral avoidance was significantly more pronounced in students living with at-risk individuals (P=0.016). In our study, anxiety and depression were predominant in the brief symptom inventory. In the short form of the Eysenck Personality Inventory, it was observed that higher scores were obtained mostly in the neuroticism and extraversion dimensions.

Conclusion: The findings of this study examining medical students show links between demographic factors, personality traits, and responses in the context of COVID-19 coping behaviors.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Sun P, Lu X, Xu C, Sun W, Pan B. Understanding of COVID-19 based on current evidence. J Med Virol. 2020;92(6):548-51. doi: 10.1002/jmv.25722.

CDC COVID-19 Response Team. Severe Outcomes Among Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) - United States, February 12-March 16, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020;69(12):343-6. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6912e2.

Roy D, Tripathy S, Kar SK, Sharma N, Verma SK, Kaushal V. Study of knowledge, attitude, anxiety & perceived mental healthcare need in Indian population during COVID-19 pandemic. Asian J Psychiatr. 2020;51:102083. doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102083.

Aker S, Mıdık Ö. The Views of Medical Faculty Students in Turkey Concerning the COVID-19 Pandemic. J Community Health. 2020;45(4):684-8. doi: 10.1007/s10900-020-00841-9.

Torun F, Torun SD. The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical students in Turkey. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(6):1355-9. doi: 10.12669/pjms.36.6.2985.

Ye W, Ye X, Liu Y, Liu Q, Vafaei S, Gao Y, et al. Effect of the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Pandemic on Medical Students' Psychological Stress and Its Influencing Factors. Front Psychol. 2020;11:548506. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.548506.

Saraswathi I, Saikarthik J, Senthil Kumar K, Madhan Srinivasan K, Ardhanaari M, Gunapriya R. Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the mental health status of undergraduate medical students in a COVID-19 treating medical college: a prospective longitudinal study. Peer J. 2020;8:e10164. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10164.

Fletcher D, Sarkar M. Psychological resilience. Eur Psychol. 2013;18(1)12-23. doi: 10.1027/1016-9040/a000124

Kimhi S, Marciano H, Eshel Y, Adini B. Resilience and demographic characteristics predicting distress during the COVID-19 crisis. Soc Sci Med. 2020;265:113389. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113389.

Ye Z, Yang X, Zeng C, Wang Y, Shen Z, Li X, et al. Resilience, Social Support, and Coping as Mediators between COVID-19-related Stressful Experiences and Acute Stress Disorder among College Students in China. Appl Psychol Health Well Being. 2020;12(4):1074-94. doi: 10.1111/aphw.12211.

Carvalho LF, Pianowski G, Gonçalves AP. Personality differences and COVID-19: are extroversion and conscientiousness personality traits associated with engagement with containment measures? Trends Psychiatry Psychother. 2020;42(2):179-84. doi: 10.1590/2237-6089-2020-0029.

Volk AA, Brazil KJ, Franklin-Luther P, Dane AV, Vaillancourt T. The influence of demographics and personality on COVID-19 coping in young adults. Pers Individ Dif. 2021;168:110398. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2020.110398.

Geniş B, Gürhan N, Koç M, Geniş Ç, Şirin B, Çirakoğlu OC, et al. Development of perception and attitude scales related with COVID-19 pandemia. Pearson Journal of Social Sciences-Humanities. 2020;5(7):306-28.

Topcu S. Çocuk ve yetişkinlerde kişilik boyutları ile bu boyutlarda kültürler arası ayrılıklar (Doctoral Thesis). Ankara: Hacettepe Üniversitesi; 1982.

Smith BW, Dalen J, Wiggins K, Tooley E, Christopher P, Bernard J. The brief resilience scale: assessing the ability to bounce back. Int J Behav Med. 2008;15(3):194-200. doi: 10.1080/10705500802222972.

Doğan T. Kısa psikolojik sağlamlık ölçeği’nin Türkçe uyarlaması: Geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışması. JHWB. 2015;3(1):93-102.

Şahin NH, Durak A. Kısa semptom envanteri: Türk gençleri için uyarlanması. Türk Psikoloji Dergisi. 1994;9(31):44-56.

Allik J, Realo A, Mccrae RR. Universality of the five-factor model of personality. American Psychological Association; 2013.

Garbe L, Rau R, Toppe T. Influence of perceived threat of Covid-19 and HEXACO personality traits on toilet paper stockpiling. PLoS One. 2020;15(6):e0234232. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0234232.

Somma A, Gialdi G, Krueger RF, Markon KE, Frau C, Lovallo S, et al. Dysfunctional personality features, non-scientifically supported causal beliefs, and emotional problems during the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Pers Individ Dif. 2020;165:110139. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2020.110139.

Al-Omiri MK, Alzoubi IA, Al Nazeh AA, Alomiri AK, Maswady MN, Lynch E. COVID-19 and personality: A cross-sectional multicenter study of the relationship between personality factors and COVID-19-related impacts, concerns, and behaviors. Front Psychiatry. 2021;12:608730. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.608730.

Duan L, Zhu G. Psychological interventions for people affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. Lancet Psychiatry. 2020;7(4):300-2. doi: 10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30073-0.

Bao Y, Sun Y, Meng S, Shi J, Lu L. 2019-nCoV epidemic: address mental health care to empower society. Lancet. 2020;395(10224):e37-e8. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30309-3.

Geary DC. Male, female: The evolution of human sex differences: American Psychological Association; 2010.

Liu N, Zhang F, Wei C, Jia Y, Shang Z, Sun L, et al. Prevalence and predictors of PTSS during COVID-19 outbreak in China hardest-hit areas: Gender differences matter. Psychiatry Res. 2020;287:112921. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112921.

Park CL, Russell BS, Fendrich M, Finkelstein-Fox L, Hutchison M, Becker J. Americans' COVID-19 Stress, Coping, and Adherence to CDC Guidelines. J Gen Intern Med. 2020;35(8):2296-303. doi: 10.1007/s11606-020-05898-9.

Wang CJ, Ng CY, Brook RH. Response to COVID-19 in Taiwan: Big Data Analytics, New Technology, and Proactive Testing. JAMA. 2020;323(14):1341-2. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.3151.

Mclaren HJ, Wong KR, Nguyen KN, Mahamadachchi KND. Covid-19 and women’s triple burden: Vignettes from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Vietnam and Australia. Social Sciences. 2020;9(5):87. doi: 10.3390/socsci9050087

Cao W, Fang Z, Hou G, Han M, Xu X, Dong J, et al. The psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on college students in China. Psychiatry Res. 2020;287:112934. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112934.

Özdin S, Bayrak Özdin Ş. Levels and predictors of anxiety, depression and health anxiety during COVID-19 pandemic in Turkish society: The importance of gender. Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2020;66(5):504-11. doi: 10.1177/0020764020927051.

Akiskal HS. Toward a definition of generalized anxiety disorder as an anxious temperament type. Acta Psychiatr Scand Suppl. 1998;393:66-73. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1998.tb05969.x.

Wang H, Liu Y, Hu K, Zhang M, Du M, Huang H, et al. Healthcare workers' stress when caring for COVID-19 patients: An altruistic perspective. Nurs Ethics. 2020;27(7):1490-500. doi: 10.1177/0969733020934146.

Chan-Yeung M. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and healthcare workers. Int J Occup Environ Health. 2004;10(4):421-7. doi: 10.1179/oeh.2004.10.4.421.

Akers RL, Massey J, Clarke W, Lauer RM. Are self-reports of adolescent deviance valid? Biochemical measures, randomized response, and the bogus pipeline in smoking behavior. Soc Forces. 1983;62(1):234-51. doi: 10.1093/sf/62.1.234.