Five major personality factors in the psychological distress of an improved covid-19 population: The moderating role of gender

The global prevalence and unprecedented COVID-19 disease is a serious threat to public health and increases psychological distress in individuals. It is crucial to study the structural model of COVID-19 psychological factors associated with COVID-19 and the lack of previous research on this issue presented in this study. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of gender modulation in the relationship between the five major factors of personality and psychological distress in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Improved patients of Covid-19 (N= 705; Age range 25-80 years, women= 63/20%; Mean age = 41/32, SD = 11/05 years). They were selected from Sasan and Baqiyatallah hospitals by available sampling method. The instruments used were the Five Personality-Short Form Questionnaire (BFI-S) and the Psychological Distress Scale (K10). R software (Lavan) package was used to analyze the data. Openness in women increases anxiety, but in men, it reduces anxiety. Moreover, the effect of openness on distress in the two groups of men and women was statistically significant (P = 0.002); Extraversion was also associated with decreased anxiety in men (P = 0.000); therefore, gender is the moderator of these relationships. These results explain the process of psychological distress by considering personality factors and the critical role of gender as a moderator and the need to pay attention to intervention approaches to reduce the effects of psychological distress in the research literature.