“Healthcare Kamikazes” during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Purpose in Life and Moral Courage as Mediators of Psychopathology

Iván Echeverria, Marc Peraire, Gonzalo Haro, Rafael Mora, Isabel Camacho, Isabel Almodóvar, Vicente Mañes, Ignacio Zaera and Ana Benito
Additional contact information
Iván Echeverria: TXP Research Group, Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, CEU Universities, 12006 Castelló de la Plana, Spain
Marc Peraire: TXP Research Group, Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, CEU Universities, 12006 Castelló de la Plana, Spain
Gonzalo Haro: TXP Research Group, Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, CEU Universities, 12006 Castelló de la Plana, Spain
Rafael Mora: Department of Mental Health, Consorci Hospitalari Provincial de Castelló, 12002 Castelló de la Plana, Spain
Isabel Camacho: Department of Mental Health, Hospital Psiquiátrico de Campeche, Campeche 24560, Mexico
Isabel Almodóvar: TXP Research Group, Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, CEU Universities, 12006 Castelló de la Plana, Spain
Vicente Mañes: Department of Mental Health, Consorci Hospitalari Provincial de Castelló, 12002 Castelló de la Plana, Spain
Ignacio Zaera: Department of Mental Health, Consorci Hospitalari Provincial de Castelló, 12002 Castelló de la Plana, Spain
Ana Benito: TXP Research Group, Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, CEU Universities, 12006 Castelló de la Plana, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 14, 1-16

Abstract: Although the required personal protective equipment was not available during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Spanish healthcare workers continued to work, being dubbed as ‘healthcare kamikazes’. Two possible reasons are moral courage and purpose in life that, in turn, would modulate the appearance of psychopathology. Cross-sectional study was carried out in 90 Spanish and 59 Mexican healthcare professionals, and 56 medical and nursing students. Spanish professionals had suffered more work and overall exposure (M = 8.30; SD = 2.57 and M = 9.03; SD = 2.66) than Mexican (M = 5.10; SD = 1.87 and M = 5.55; SD = 2.35). Mexican professionals had fewer anxiety disorders (30.5%; n = 18) and a lower depression score (M = 4.45; SD = 5.63) than the Spanish (43.7%; n = 38; and M = 8.69; SD = 8.07). Spanish professionals more often experienced acute stress disorder (32.6%; n = 29). Purpose in life, in addition to having a direct protective effect on psychopathology, also modulated the relationship between personal and family exposure and psychopathology. In conclusion, purpose in life protects against the appearance of psychopathology in healthcare workers with personal and family exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: acute stress; anxiety; COVID-19; coronavirus; depression; psychopathology; purpose in life; moral courage; healthcare workers; healthcare students (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:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/14/7235/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/14/7235/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:14:p:7235-:d:589471

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().