Predicting Emotional distress based on defense styles and Coping strategies in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic

Considering the destructive effects of the prevalence of infectious diseases such as Covid-19 and the resulting social crisis on physical and mental health, a leading study has been conducted to predict emotional distress based on defense styles and coping strategies in the coping of Covid-19 epidemic. The research method was descriptive-correlational and its statistical population included all people aged 15 to 50 living in Ardabil province in the second half of 1399. From this population, 403 people were purposefully selected and completed the Defense Styles Questionnaire(DSQ), the Covid-19 Epidemic Coping Styles Questionnaire and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Questionnaire(DASS). The obtained data were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. The results showed there was a negative relationship between the components of emotional distress (depression, anxiety and stress) with the developed defense style and effective coping strategies of Covid-19 and a positive relationship with the undeveloped defense style and ineffective coping strategies of Covid-19; But no significant relationship was found between the components of emotional distress and disturbed mental defense style. The regression results also showed that 30% of the variance of depression, 24% of the variance of anxiety and 27% of the variance of stress were explained by the predictor variables. Therefore, the findings of this study showed that defense styles and coping strategies are effective factors in the development of emotional distress when dealing with the Covid-19 epidemic. Using these results can help improve the quality of life and public health by reducing vulnerability to Covid-19.