The Investigation of the Relationship between Fear of Covid 19 and Psychological Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Psychological Hardiness and Social Support

Due to the emergence of Covid 19 disease and according to the stable psychological reactions caused by the outbreak of this virus and the importance of anxiety and fear of this virus on the psychological well-being of students, The study aimed to investigate the relationship between fear of Covid 19 and psychological well-being by mediating the role of psychological Hardiness and social support in undergraduate students. The virus challenged the quality of life of people around the world and changed interpersonal issues and self-acceptance questions, the meaning of life, and relationships with others.  The disease is prevalent in Iran, as in other countries, and has rapidly endangered the physical and mental health of people, as the prevalence of this disease has raised concerns about the possibility of death from viral infections and has led to psychological stress. Research shows that people with coronavirus anxiety suffer from a wide range of psychological problems, and having the infection is a psychological risk factor, to the point that, among people in the United States, China, and more recently India, people suffer from anxiety. The disease led to suicide. Since to reduce the fear of Quid 19, one must first identify the effective factors and identify the share of each of them and use them, the present study seeks to answer the question of whether reducing the fear of Quid 19 increases welfare psychologically affected? Also, can Psychological well-being and social support play a mediating role in these two variables? As a result, the present study was conducted to investigate this model in students.

This study was a descriptive correlational study. The study's statistical population was all undergraduate students studying at Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz from 1300 to 1400, from which 360 students were selected by a multi-stage sampling method. In this study, tools of fear of Covid 19, a short psychological well-being questionnaire, psychological hardiness of Ahvaz University, and social support were used to collect data. Findings confirmed the suitability of reliability and validity of the instruments. The direct relationships of the collected data were analyzed using SPSS 23 and AMOS 23 software and the indirect and mediated relationships were analyzed using Bootstrap.

The results showed that there was a significant negative relationship between fear of Covid and psychological Hardiness, social sup, port and psychological well-being (p˂0.01). The results also showed that psychological Hardiness and social support play a mediating role.

Considering the inverse relationship between fear of Covid 19 and social support and psychological hardiness, it seems that the existence of supportive measures by family and others during the coronavirus epidemic is necessary. It is also possible to reduce the fear of Covid and increase the psychological well-being of individuals by increasing the characterstic of psychological hardiness. It is suggested that other variables that can be effective as a shield against severe stress should also be considered.