The mediating role of risk perception and anxiety sensitivity in the structural relations of neuroticism and extravertion with the psychological and behavioral problems of corona virus

Personality components alongside with other psychological characteristics such as risk perception, anxiety sensitivity, and metacognitive belifs are considered as the most important and effective factors to pandemic. Neuroticism and extraversion have attracted more attention of the researchers, however, the mediatory role of psychological constructs in corona pandemic have been less investigated.

The present study is aimed at investigating the mediatory role of risk perception and anxiety sensitivity in the structural relations of neuroticism and extravertion with the psychological and behavioral problems of Corona virus.

This study had a descriptive correlational design. The population of the study was all Iranian community individuals who lived in the country within he first 6-month of the 2020 year. A sample of 649 participants enrolled to the study through purposeful sampling. To collect the data, the psychological and behavioral problems of Corona virus questionnaire (authors’ designed), along with anxiety sensitivity index (Reiss, Peterson, Gursky, & McNally, 1986), big five personality (Donnellan, Oswald, Baird, & Lucas, 2006), and risk perception (Benthin, Slovic, & Severson, 1993) scales were used.

The evaluation of the hypothesized model using goodness-of-fit indices indicated that our proposed model fits with the measured model (CFI=0/96, NFI=0/94, and RMSEA=0/054). Statistical analyses revealed that risk perception and anxiety sensitivity could play mediating role in the structural relations of neuroticism and extravertion with the psychological and behavioral problems of Corona with standard coefficients of -0/052 and 0/161 (p < 0/05). Also, neuroticism has significant effect on the psychological and behavioral problems of Corona with the mediation of risk perception with standard coefficient of 0/100 (p < 0/05).

It assumed that the psychological and behavioral problems of Corona virus is effected by some psychological factors through direct and indirect ways and their inclusion in the comprehensive plans of health system is preferred