ArticleScientific reports2022
Social support, psychological flexibility and coping mediate the association between COVID-19 related stress exposure and psychological distress.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed.
- Beyond the Immediate Impact: Burnout, Psychological Distress, and Workforce Retention Among Healthcare Workers One Year After the Türkiye Earthquakes.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Psychological flexibility as a mediating mechanism linking adverse and positive childhood experiences to suicidal thoughts in emerging adults.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Social support as leverage? A quantitative study of social support as a mediator of the relationship between disability/activity limitations and psychological distress among young adults in Ghana.BMC public health · 2026Article
- The Impact of Coping and Psychological Flexibility on Young Adult Caregivers' Mental Health and Quality of Life.The journal of behavioral health services & research · 2026Article
- Article
- Perceived social support and psychological flexibility mediate the relationship between positive solitude and psychological wellbeing among Turkish adults.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Linking stigma to social isolation among colorectal cancer survivors with permanent stomas: the chain mediating roles of stoma acceptance and valuable actions.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2025Article
- The dynamic association between depression, psychological flexibility, and meaning in life among medical students: a cross-lagged analysis.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- The interplay between perceived stress, psychological flexibility, and interpretation biases in undergraduate mental health.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The interplay between prenatal psychological flexibility and couple secure base in promoting postpartum parenting.Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43) · 2025Article
- Feasibility and acceptability of a brief online acceptance and commitment therapy intervention to reduce fear of childbirth: A novel application of a third-wave cognitive behavioral therapy focused on psychological flexibility and acceptance.Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica · 2025Article
- Article
- COVID-19's disruptions to daily life and pandemic fatigue during the pandemic in Chinese people: a moderated mediation effect of perceived stress and social support.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Be Kind to Yourself: Testing Self-Compassion, Fear of Recurrence, and Generalized Anxiety in Women with Cancer Within a Multiple-Mediation Model.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Future anxiety, depression and stress among undergraduate students: psychological flexibility and emotion regulation as mediators.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Developing the Chinese version of the Index of Sojourner Social Support: the roles of socio-emotional and instrumental support in internal migrant university students.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Emotion Regulation Under Stress: A Social Processing and Memory Perspective.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Psychological distress and coping mechanisms due to the COVID-19 pandemic among the adult population in Bo Sierra Leone. A cross-sectional study.PLOS mental health · 2025Article
- Anxiety and perceived social support as moderators of cognitive and emotional well-being in populations affected by COVID-19.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Age-related variations in mental health and wellbeing during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: a multi-country survey analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to an increase in psychological distress. However, protective factors such as social support, psychological flexibility, and coping mechanisms can help individuals cope with the effects of psychological distress. This study aimed to test a recent hypothesis suggesting that psychological flexibility is not necessarily a coping strategy but a mechanism that can influence the coping strategies an individual employs during stressful events. We tested a mediation model that COVID-19 concerns would contribute to higher levels of perceived social support, which would directly increase psychological flexibility, and finally test if the effect of psychological flexibility on distress was mediated by approach and avoidant coping strategies. The results show that social support facilitates higher levels of psychological flexibility. Further, that psychological flexibility indirectly reduces psychological distress by reducing avoidant coping and increasing approach coping strategies. Within the context of COVID-19, we have shown the importance of social support and psychological flexibility for reducing distress. We have provided further evidence that psychological flexibility might not be a coping mechanism but a strategy that leads individuals to engage in more approach coping strategies and fewer avoidant coping strategies.
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