Health Anxiety Predicts the Perceived Dangerousness of COVID-19 over and above Intrusive Illness-Related Thoughts, Contamination Symptoms, and State and Trait Negative Affect
Autor: | Ilaria Colpizzi, Corrado Caudek, Claudio Sica, Gioia Bottesi, Paolo Giulini, Maria Caruso, Silvia Cerea |
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Jazyk: | angličtina |
Rok vydání: | 2021 |
Předmět: |
050103 clinical psychology
Health Toxicology and Mutagenesis media_common.quotation_subject Vulnerability Specific risk lcsh:Medicine negative affect Anxiety Affect (psychology) Article contamination health anxiety intrusive thoughts pandemic psychopathology Affect COVID-19 Communicable Disease Control Humans Italy SARS-CoV-2 Dangerous Behavior 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Perception medicine 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Depression (differential diagnoses) media_common 05 social sciences lcsh:R Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health 030227 psychiatry Trait medicine.symptom Psychology Psychopathology Clinical psychology |
Zdroj: | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Volume 18 Issue 4 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol 18, Iss 1933, p 1933 (2021) |
Popis: | This study sought to evaluate the specificity of health anxiety, relative to other forms of psychopathology, in perceptions of COVID-19 as dangerous. Measures of health anxiety, COVID-19 perceived dangerousness, negative affect, anxiety, depression, stress, contamination-related obsessions and compulsions, and intrusive illness-related thoughts were administered online to 742 community individuals during the Italian national lockdown. Results showed that, after controlling for demographic variables and other internalizing problems, health anxiety was the single most important factor associated with the perceived dangerousness of COVID-19. Moreover, a comparison between the current sample’s scores on various symptom measures and scores from prepandemic Italian samples revealed that, whereas other internalizing symptoms increased by a large or very large magnitude during the pandemic, levels of health anxiety and negative affect increased by a medium amount. This result may indicate that health anxiety is relatively trait-like, increasing the likelihood that our correlational data support the model of health anxiety as a vulnerability rather than an outcome. Together, these results indicate that health anxiety may be a specific risk factor for COVID-related maladjustment and support the distinction of health anxiety from other psychological problems. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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