Stress Coping Styles in Family and Relatives of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Patients in the South of Iran: Application of Lazarus and Folkman’s Theory of Stress Coping

Abstract

Background: The ongoing outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a major challenge for mental health care systems and causes and exacerbates mental anxiety. Objective: This study sought to investigate the coping styles of stress in families and relatives of COVID-19 patients in the south of Iran, according to Lazarus and Folkman’s Transactional theory ‎of Stress coping ‎model. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was performed in the period from March 5 to July 5, 2020. Data collection was done electronically using a standard questionnaire on Lazarus and Folkman’s coping methods. Finally, the output data of the electronic questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: A total of 276 people participated in the present study. There was a statistically significant difference between age and all emotion-oriented coping style domains (P <0.05), except planful problem solving (P = 0.817) and positive reappraisal (P = 0.153). The results of the present study showed that from the emotion-oriented coping, the domain of self-controlling (%55.9) received an unfavorable score, but in the problem-oriented coping (60.02%), the two domains of social support (%71.27) and positive reappraisal (70%) obtained scores above 50%. Conclusion: Families and relatives need help to improve coping with stress in the area of self-controlling. The results of the present study showed that emotion-oriented coping (self-controlling) had less effect on family stress than problem-oriented coping (domains of social support and positive reappraisal). Also, with domains of social support and positive reappraisal, the stress in the families was reduced. Factors influencing coping styles were age, literacy, source of information, and underlying disease. Since the COVID-19 pandemic condition is a unique stressful situation, it is necessary to implement psychological and educational interventions to gain the ability to control stress, especially in relatives with COVID-19.