Coping Strategies During COVID-19 Outbreak in Islamic Republic of Iran

Abstract

Objective: Since the emergence of the Covid- 19 pandemic in Wuhan, China, there have been 36,166,237cases and 1,056,504 deaths worldwide to date, and the numbers are growing. These conditions in the world have created a kind of mental stress in people that provides a basis for studying coping strategies for this condition. Coping occurs in response to psychological stress—usually triggered by changes—in an effort to maintain mental health and emotional well-being. The Lazarus Coping Strategy Questionnaire is based on the Lazarus-Folkman theory of stress. In their view, our interpretation of events is more important than the events themselves. They believe that one's perception of situations determines its tension and severity.

Methods & Materials: In this study we used online questionnaire of Lazarus and Folkman coping strategies from June 22, 2020 to July 1 ,2020 to investigate the coping strategy of people. 100 questionnaires were collected from individuals and people answered 66 questions online and their answers were collected and analyzed through the Porsline.ir website.

Result: The averages obtained from the emotion-focused and problem-focused strategies are as follows 1.20 and 1.40. T-test (61.05, 67.20) shows that people used more problem-focused strategy in this period. Problem-focused coping strategy are characteristic of people with good mental health and social well-being.

Conclusions: Results show that participants used problem-focused coping strategy more than emotion-focused strategy.

Keywords: COVID-19, coping strategy, Lazarus, Folkman