IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i18p7561-d413233.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hardiness and Coping Strategies as Mediators of Stress and Secondary Trauma in Emergency Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Monia Vagni

    (Department of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, Italy)

  • Tiziana Maiorano

    (Department of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, Italy)

  • Valeria Giostra

    (Department of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, Italy)

  • Daniela Pajardi

    (Department of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, Italy)

Abstract

The work environment of emergency workers is an important factor related to stress. Coping with the COVID-19 emergency is a factor that is highly related to stress, and severe stress is a risk factor for developing secondary trauma. Coping and resilience can help rescue workers to better respond in emergency situations and could protect them from secondary trauma. We aimed to explore the relationship of emergency stress, hardiness, coping strategies, and secondary trauma among emergency workers and the mediating roles of coping strategies and hardiness on the effect of stress in producing secondary trauma. The study involved 513 emergency workers from the Red Cross Committee in Veneto, one of the Italian regions most affected by the COVID-19. Participants completed questionnaires online to measure emergency stress (physical, emotional, cognitive, organizational‒relational, COVID-19, and inefficacy decisional), hardiness, coping strategies, and secondary trauma. Other variables analyzed were age, gender, weekly hours of service, and use of personal protective equipment (PPE). We performed t -tests, a correlational analysis, regressions, and a mediation analysis. Hardiness and coping strategies, in particular, which stop unpleasant emotions and thoughts and problem-focused, emerged as mediators in reducing the predicted effect of stress on secondary trauma. The mediating effects of hardiness and coping strategies were found to reduce the effect of stress on arousal by 15% and the effect on avoidance by 25%.

Suggested Citation

  • Monia Vagni & Tiziana Maiorano & Valeria Giostra & Daniela Pajardi, 2020. "Hardiness and Coping Strategies as Mediators of Stress and Secondary Trauma in Emergency Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-27, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7561-:d:413233
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7561/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7561/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tiziana Maiorano & Monia Vagni & Valeria Giostra & Daniela Pajardi, 2020. "COVID-19: Risk Factors and Protective Role of Resilience and Coping Strategies for Emergency Stress and Secondary Trauma in Medical Staff and Emergency Workers—An Online-Based Inquiry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-18, October.
    2. Kyung-Hyun Suh & Hana Lee & Paul T. Bartone, 2021. "Validation of Korean Version of the Hardiness Resilience Gauge," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Monia Vagni & Valeria Giostra & Tiziana Maiorano & Giuliano Santaniello & Daniela Pajardi, 2020. "Personal Accomplishment and Hardiness in Reducing Emergency Stress and Burnout among COVID-19 Emergency Workers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-18, October.
    4. Rita Roncone & Laura Giusti & Silvia Mammarella & Anna Salza & Valeria Bianchini & Annalina Lombardi & Massimo Prosperococco & Elio Ursini & Valentina Scaletta & Massimo Casacchia, 2021. "“Hang in There!”: Mental Health in a Sample of the Italian Civil Protection Volunteers during the COVID-19 Health Emergency," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-19, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7561-:d:413233. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.