The Mediating Role of the Coronavirus Anxiety in the Relationship Between Emotion Regulation Strategies and Spiritual Coping with Psychological Distress in Healthcare Workers

Aim and Background: The Coronavirus disease pandemic has caused high stress, anxiety and distress for the healthcare workers. Although the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and spiritual coping with psychological distress has been confirmed, little attention has been paid to mediating factors of this relationship. Therefore, the aim of present study was investigating the mediating role of Coronavirus anxiety in the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and spiritual coping with the psychological distress in healthcare workers during COVID-19. Methods and Materials: This study is a fundamental in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlation in terms of method. The statistical population included all healthcare workers in Mashhad, Iran. In this cross- sectional descriptive research, 366 healthcare workers participated, in the year 2021. The cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire, spiritual coping questionnaire, Corona disease anxiety scale and psychological distress scale were used to collect data. The research data were analyzed using descriptive indices, Pearson correlation coefficient and Path analysis method. Findings: The results showed that the level of psychological distress and Coronavirus anxiety in the healthcare workers are 17.01±10.52 and 13.26±8.91. There was a significant relationship between maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, positive and negative spiritual coping, and Coronavirus anxiety with psychological distress (P<0.01). The model related to mediating role of Coronavirus anxiety in the relationship between maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and negative spiritual coping with the psychological distress in healthcare workers had a good fit (CFI = 0.99, NFI = 0.99, IFI = 0.99, GFI = 1, RMSEA = 0.078). Conclusions: The results show that emotion regulation, spiritual coping and Coronavirus anxiety play an important role in the psychological distress in healthcare workers. These findings can help to develop emotion-oriented and spiritual-oriented interventions to reduce the Coronavirus anxiety and the psychological distress caused by pandemic diseases such as Corona in the healthcare workers.