DynaCORE-C: The DynaMORE cross-sectional survey study on psychological resilience to the mental health consequences of the Corona crisis
Creators: name: Kalisch, Raffael
name: Veer, Ilya
name: Yuen, Kenneth
name: Hendler, Talma
name: Myin-Germeys, Inez
name: Walter, Henrik
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences

description: The current Corona pandemic is not only a threat to physical health. First data from China and the United Kingdom indicate that symptoms of anxiety and depression and perceptions of stress rise significantly as a consequence of the pandemic. There are also anecdotal reports in the general media of increased domestic violence, divorce and suicide rates. Hence, the Corona crisis is also a mental health crisis. Threats to public mental health are likely to further increase with the spread of the virus across the world and the potentially severe economic, societal and political side effects of the pandemic. In this situation, there is urgent need for knowledge about factors that can protect mental health in this world-wide crisis and that can be harnessed in the service of public mental health promotion. DynaCORE-C attempts to identify these protective factors (resilience factors) with the help of an internet-based cross-sectional questionnaire survey for adults available in multiple languages. Our dependent variable is resilience. In keeping with current conceptualizations of this construct (Bonanno et al., 2015; Kalisch et al., 2017), we define resilience as an outcome of good mental health despite exposure to adversity (outcome-based resilience) and measure it by relating mental health outcomes to experienced stressors (Kalisch et al., 2015), which we extensively sample. That is, we do not rely on resilience questionnaires to obtain our dependent variable. In defining our hypotheses about independent variables (resilience factors), we focus on modifiable factors that can be targeted by prevention measures. Specifically, we hypothesize that social support, an increase in social support during the Corona crisis, optimism, general self-efficacy, good stress recovery, positive appraisal style (primary hypothesis), positive appraisal specifically of the Corona crisis, and behavioral coping are positively associated with resilience (outcome), while neuroticism is negatively associated with resilience. We also hypothesize that the expected positive effect of social support on resilience is positively mediated by its effect on positive appraisal style, and that the expected positive effect of positive appraisal style on resilience is positively mediated by its effect on stress recovery. Open questions in the survey allow for detecting potential non-hypothesized resilience factors. Analyses will be conducted in the whole sample. Subgroup analyses will be conducted for socio-demographic and health characteristics such as gender, country of residence, occupation, or belonging to a risk group. Further, different phases of the crisis (during official general movement or contact restrictions and after the loosening of these restrictions) will be considered. This will allow us to gain insights into which resilience factors are most effective in which groups and at what times of the crisis and how preventive interventions can be optimally targeted.