The Role of Self-Talk in Predicting Death Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and Coping Strategies in the Face of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

Nowadays, the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) is one of the most stressful resources that has led to the rise of different levels of psychological crisis. In addition to the countries affected by the COVID-19, such as China, European and American countries, Iran has appeared as one of the most affected countries with high infected cases and deaths. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of self-talk in predicting death anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and coping strategies in the face of COVID-19.

This descriptive and correlational study was conducted on 354 adults living in Ardabil, Iran, who were selected using cluster sampling from 21 January to 19 March 2020. Self-Talk questionnaires, Coping Strategies, Death Anxiety, and Obsessive-Compulsive questionnaires were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression were used for data analysis.

The findings revealed a significant positive relationship between self-talk and problem-centered coping style. Also, significant negative relationships were found between self-talk and emotional coping style, death anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Furthermore, based on the results of the regression test, self-talk predicted problem-centered style, emotional-coping style, death anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The results of this study emphasize the need for psychological crisis intervention during the COVID-19 outbreak. Also, this study provides an important step in shifting attention to self-talk skills from sport psychology fields toward clinical psychology, especially about the mental impacts of COVID-19.