The Moderating Role of Caregiving on Fear of COVID-19 and Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms

José Luis Carballo, Ainhoa Coloma-Carmona, Sara Arteseros-Bañón and Virtudes Pérez-Jover
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José Luis Carballo: Center for Applied Psychology, Miguel Hernández University, Avenida Universidad s/n, 03202 Elche, Spain
Ainhoa Coloma-Carmona: Center for Applied Psychology, Miguel Hernández University, Avenida Universidad s/n, 03202 Elche, Spain
Sara Arteseros-Bañón: Center for Applied Psychology, Miguel Hernández University, Avenida Universidad s/n, 03202 Elche, Spain
Virtudes Pérez-Jover: Center for Applied Psychology, Miguel Hernández University, Avenida Universidad s/n, 03202 Elche, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-11

Abstract: Caregiving has been associated with increased levels of fear and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) during COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is a lack of studies that analyze when the relationship between fear and PTSS occur, using informal caregiving as a moderator variable. To explore this moderating role, we conducted a cross-sectional online study between November 2020 and January 2021. A total of 503 men and women from the Spanish general population completed the survey. Sociodemographic and Covid-19-related data, fear of COVID-19, PTSS symptoms, and current psychological history were assessed. Prevalence of informal caregiving in the sample was 16.5%. Increased levels of fear and PTSS were found in caregivers compared to non-caregivers. Female gender and high number of COVID-19 related risk factors was also associated with fear and PTSS severity. The moderation analyses showed an interaction effect between caregiving and fear of COVID-19 when predicting PTSS symptoms. Particularly, results showed that informal caregivers reported greater PTSS symptoms, when compared to non-caregivers with same levels of fear of COVID-19. This evidence suggests that being a caregiver could increase the fear’s impact on PTSS severity in the context of pandemics. Further studies with larger samples are needed to confirm these findings.

Keywords: COVID-19 fear; post-traumatic symptoms; caregiver; informal caregiver; pandemics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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