Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

In this study, we examined the relationship between optimism and pessimism associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, mental health, and perceived risk of infection. In particular, we tested the hypothesis that, when optimism and pessimism were high during the pandemic period, a worse mental health and a higher perception of risk would be reported. To this end, a convenience sample of 374 Italian adults was enrolled. Measures included perceived stress, optimism, and pessimism associated with the development of the pandemic situation, as well as the perceived risk of Covid-19 infection. The results showed that optimism and pessimism were associated with perceived stress and Covid-19 risk perception while controlling for demographic variables. Optimism and stress were negatively related, while pessimism was positively related to both stress and risk perception. Furthermore, the interaction between optimism and optimism was significant, with a higher perception of risk in the presence of both high optimism and pessimism, and a lower perception of risk with high optimism and low pessimism. These results support the hypothesis that optimism and pessimism interacted in predicting Covid-19 risk perception and show that they should be measured as partially correlated but independent constructs in future investigations.

Keywords

Optimism pessimism risk perception covid-19 stress

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ajlouni

A. O.

Almahaireh

A. S.

(2020). Relationship between coronavirus-related anxiety and coronavirus-related anxiety and optimism among undergraduates at the university of Jordan. Journal of Critical Reviews, 9(September), 19. https://doi.org/10.31838/jcr.07.19.879

Arslan

Yıldırım

Tanhan

Buluş

Allen

K. A.

(2020). Coronavirus stress, optimism-pessimism, psychological inflexibility, and psychological health: Psychometric properties of the coronavirus stress measure. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 2(Who), 2423–2439. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00337-6

Biondi

Iannitelli

(2020). CoViD-19 and stress in the pandemic: “Sanity is not statistical. Rivista Di Psichiatria, 55(3), E1–E6. https://doi.org/10.1708/3382.33568

Bortolotti

Antrobus

(2015). Costs and benefits of realism and optimism. In Current opinion in psychiatry, (28, Issue 2, pp. 194–198). Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. https://doi.org/10.1097/YCO.0000000000000143

Brewer

N. T.

Chapman

G. B.

Gibbons

F. X.

Gerrard

McCaul

K. D.

Weinstein

N. D.

(2007). Meta-analysis of the relationship between risk perception and health behavior: The example of vaccination. Health Psychology: Official Journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 26(2), 136–145. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.26.2.136

Buheji

Jahrami

Sabah Dhahi

Dhahi

A. S.

(2020). Minimising stress exposure during pandemics similar to COVID-19. International Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 2020(1), 9–16. https://doi.org/10.5923/j.ijpbs.20201001.02

Carvalho

P. M. de M.

Moreira

M. M.

de Oliveira

M. N. A.

Landim

J. M. M.

Neto

M. L. R.

(2020). The psychiatric impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Psychiatry Research, 286(February), 112902. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112902

Chang

E. C.

Maydeu-Olivares

D’Zurilla

T. J.

(1997). Optimism and pessimism as partially independent constructs: Relationship to positive and negative affectivity and psychological well-being. Personality and Individual Differences, 23(3), 433–440. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(97)80009-8

Cohen

Kamarck

Mermelstein

(2006). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385. https://doi.org/10.2307/2136404

10.

Commodari

(2017). The role of sociodemographic and psychological variables on risk perception of the flu. SAGE Open, 7(3), 215824401771889. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017718890

11.

Conversano

Rotondo

Lensi

della Vista

Arpone

Reda

M. A.

(2010). Optimism and its impact on mental and physical well-being. Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health, 6(1), 25–29. https://doi.org/10.2174/1745017901006010025

12.

Dember

W. N.

(2004). The optimism–pessimism instrument: Personal and social correlates. In Optimism & pessimism: Implications for theory, research, and practice (pp. 281–299). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10385-013

13.

Dryhurst

Schneider

C. R.

Kerr

Freeman

A. L. J.

Recchia

van der Bles

A. M.

Spiegelhalter

van der Linden

(2020). Risk perceptions of COVID-19 around the world. Journal of Risk Research, 23(7-8), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1758193

14.

Ferrer

R. A.

Klein

W. M. P.

(2015). Risk perceptions and health behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 5(5), 85–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.03.012

15.

Goodwin

Haque

Hassan

S. B. S.

Dhanoa

(2011). Representations of swine flu: Perspectives from a Malaysian pig farm. Public Understanding of Science, 20(4), 477–490. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662510392484

16.

Hair

J. F.

Hult

G. T. M.

Ringle

Sarstedt

(2016). A Primer on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). SAGE Publications.

17.

Harper

C. A.

Satchell

L. P.

Fido

Latzman

R. D.

(2020). Functional fear predicts public health compliance in the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 68(1), 7–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00281-5

18.

Harrell

F. E.

(2015). Regression modeling strategies: With applications to linear models, logistic and ordinal regression, and survival analysis. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1198/tech.2003.s158

19.

Hayes

A. F.

(2018). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis. In A regression-based approach (2nd edition.). The Guilford Press.

20.

Holmes

T. H.

Rahe

R. H.

(1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11(2), 213–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(67)90010-4

21.

Hummer

M. K.

Dember

W. N.

Melton

R. S.

Schefft

B. K.

(1992). On the partial independence of optimism and pessimism. Current Psychology, 11(1), 37–50. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686826

22.

Istituto Superiore di Sanità . (2020, April). Il ruolo delle patologie croniche pregresse nella prognosi dei pazienti COVID-19. https://Www.Epicentro.Iss.It/Coronavirus/Sars-Cov-2-Flu

23.

Kompaniyets

Pennington

A. F.

Goodman

A. B.

Rosenblum

H. G.

Belay

J. Y.

Chevinsky

J. R.

Schieber

L. Z.

Summers

A. D.

Lavery

A. M.

Preston

L. E.

Danielson

M. L.

Cui

Namulanda

Yusuf

Kenzie

W. R. M.

Wong

K. K.

Baggs

Boehmer

T. K.

Gundlapalli

A. v.

(2021). Underlying Medical Conditions and Severe Illness Among 540,667 Adults Hospitalized With COVID-19, March 2020-March 2021. Preventing Chronic Disease, 18, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.5888/PCD18.210123

24.

Kwok

K. O.

K. K.

Chan

H. H. H.

Tang

Wei

W. I.

Wong

S. Y. S.

(2020). Community responses during early phase of COVID-19 epidemic, Hong Kong. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 26(7), 1575–1579. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2607.200500

25.

Malecki

K. M. C.

Keating

J. A.

Safdar

(2020). Crisis communication and public perception of COVID-19 risk in the era of social media. Clinical infectious diseases, 72(4), 697–702. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa758

26.

Moscadelli

Albora

Biamonte

M. A.

Giorgetti

Innocenzio

Paoli

Lorini

Bonanni

Bonaccorsi

(2020). Fake news and covid-19 in Italy: Results of a quantitative observational study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(16), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17165850

27.

Podsakoff

P. M.

MacKenzie

S. B.

Lee

J. Y.

Podsakoff

N. P.

(2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879

28.

Puig-Perez

Villada

Pulopulos

M. M.

Almela

Hidalgo

Salvador

(2015). Optimism and pessimism are related to different components of the stress response in healthy older people. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 98(2), 213–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.09.002

29.

Rudisill

(2013). How do we handle new health risks? Risk perception, optimism, and behaviors regarding the H1N1 virus. Journal of Risk Research, 16(8), 959–980. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2012.761271

30.

Scheier

M. F.

Carver

C. S.

(1992). Effects of optimism on psychological and physical well-being: Theoretical overview and empirical update. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 16(2), 201–228. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01173489

31.

Scheier

M. F.

Carver

C. S.

Bridges

M. W.

(1994). Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism (and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem): A reevaluation of the life orientation test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(6), 1063–1078. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.6.1063

32.

Simione

Gnagnarella

(2020). Differences between health workers and general population in risk perception, behaviors, and psychological distress related to COVID-19 spread in Italy. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 2166. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/84d2c

33.

Simione

Gnagnarella

Spina

Bersani

(2022). Help-seeking as a maladaptive coping style in the pandemic scenario: What worked and what did not for facing this new stressor. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(1), 319. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010319

34.

Steptoe

Wright

Kunz-Ebrecht

S. R.

Iliffe

(2006). Dispositional optimism and health behaviour in community-dwelling older people: Associations with healthy ageing. British Journal of Health Psychology, 11(1), 71–84. https://doi.org/10.1348/135910705X42850

35.

Sweeny

Shepperd

J. A.

(2010). The costs of optimism and the benefits of pessimism. Emotion, 10(5), 750–753. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019016

36.

Szalma

J. L.

(2009). Individual differences in performance, workload, and stress in sustained attention: Optimism and pessimism. Personality and Individual Differences, 47(5), 444–451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.04.019

37.

Unrau

(2020). The story of the pandemic: Navigating our way between optimism and pessimism. Mind and Society, 19(1), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-020-00232-6

38.

Wang

Horby

P. W.

Hayden

F. G.

Gao

G. F.

(2020). A novel coronavirus outbreak of global health concern. The Lancet, 395(10223), 470–473. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30185-9

39.

Wise

Zbozinek

T. D.

Michelini

Hagan

C. C.

Mobbs

(2020). Changes in risk perception and self-reported protective behaviour during the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Royal Society Open Science, 7(9), 200742. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.200742

40.

Lyu

(2021). The relationship between the duration of attention to pandemic news and depression during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019: The roles of risk perception and future time perspective. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 564284. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.564284

41.

Xiang

Y. T.

Yang

Zhang

Cheung

C. H.

(2020). Timely mental health care for the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak is urgently needed. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(3), 228–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30046-8

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.20 MB

The Interaction Between Optimism and Pessimism Predicted the Perceived Risk of Infection During the Covid-19 Pandemic: An Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material