The role of healthy emotionality in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental health problems: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Understanding pandemic-related psychopathology development is limited due to numerous individual and contextual factors. It is widely accepted that individual differences to endure or cope with distress predict psychopathology development. The present study investigated the influence of individual differences in neuroticism and healthy emotionality concerning the association between fear of COVID-19 and mental health problems. It was hypothesized that healthy emotionality would moderate the mediated link between fear of COVID-19 and mental health problems. A sample of 752 participants (351 males and 401 females) completed an online survey including the Emotional Style Questionnaire, Fear of COVID-19 Scale, the Neuroticism subscale of the Big Five Inventory, and General Health Questionnaire. The results showed that the fear of COVID-19 positively predicted mental health problems (β =.43, SE =.05, p