The impact of strict and forced confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic on positive functioning variables, emotional distress, and posttraumatic growth in a Spanish sample
Creators: name: Miragall, Marta
name: Herrero, Rocío
name: Vara, M Dolores
name: Galiana, Laura
name: Baños, Rosa M
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Medicine
subject: Evolutionary Biology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Developmental Biology
subject: 111714 Mental Health
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: Computational Biology

description: <b>Background</b>: The adverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health have been widely studied in recent months. However, few studies have examined the protective psychological factors that may explain how individuals are coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and its forced confinements. <b>Objective</b>: This study analyzes the impact of confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic on positive functioning variables (resilience, meaning of life, gratitude, compassion, life satisfaction), emotional distress (depression, anxiety, perceived stress, affect), and posttraumatic growth (PTG). The impact was measured during and after the first month of strict and obligatory confinement in Spain. <b>Methods</b>: The sample was composed of 438 Spanish residents (78.3% women) between the ages of 18 and 68 (<i>M</i> = 35.68; <i>SD </i>= 13.19) during the first stage (first two weeks) of confinement. The sample was reduced to 197 participants during the second stage (fifth week) of confinement. Several online self-reported questionnaires were administered to assess positive functioning variables, emotional distress, and PTG. <b>Results</b>: Women, youths, individuals without a partner, with lower monetary incomes, or diagnosed with a mental disorder or chronic illness experienced lower scores in positive functioning variables and greater emotional distress during the first stage of confinement. Linear mixed models showed that scores on positive functioning variables, emotional distress, and PTG worsened in the second stage of confinement. Nevertheless, a structural equations model showed that increases in positive functioning variables in the second stage were associated with increases in life satisfaction (<i>R<sup>2</sup> </i>= .450) and related to decreases in emotional distress (<i>R<sup>2</sup> </i>= .186), leading in turn to increases in PTG (<i>R<sup>2</sup> </i>= .061). <b>Conclusions</b>: Individuals could experience PTG during strict and mandatory confinement. The increase in PTG during this adverse event was indirectly associated with increases in positive functioning variables (i.e. gratitude, presence of meaning, resilience), through improvements in life satisfaction and emotional distress. Increases in positive functioning variables (resilience, gratitude, meaning in life) were protective factors associated with the increase in life satisfaction, the decrease in emotional distress, and the increase in posttraumatic growth after strict and forced confinement. Increases in positive functioning variables (resilience, gratitude, meaning in life) were protective factors associated with the increase in life satisfaction, the decrease in emotional distress, and the increase in posttraumatic growth after strict and forced confinement.