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Factors Associated With Highest Symptoms of Anxiety During COVID-19: Cross-Cultural Study of 23 Countries

Burkova VN 1 , Butovskaya ML 1 , Randall AK 2 , Fedenok JN 1 , Ahmadi K 3 , Alghraibeh AM 4 Show all authors , Allami FBM 5 , Alpaslan FS 6 , Al-Zu'bi MAA 7 , Al-Mseidin KIM 8 , Biçer DF 9 , Cetinkaya H 10 , David OA 11 , Donato S 12 , Dural S 13 , Erickson P 14 , Ermakov AM 15 , Ertuğrul B 6 , Fayankinnu EA 16 , Fisher ML 17 , Al Gharaibeh F 18 , Hocker L 2 , Hromatko I 19 , Kasparova E 20 , Kavina A 21 , Khatatbeh YM 22 , Khun-Inkeeree H 23 , Kline KM 2 , Koç F 24 , Kolodkin V 25 , MacEacheron M 26 , Maruf IR 27 , Meskó N 28 , Mkrtchyan R 29 , Nurisnaeny PS 30 , Ojedokun O 31 , Adebayo D 31 , Omar-Fauzee MSB 32 , Özener B 6 , Ponciano ELT 33 , Rizwan M 34 , Sabiniewicz A 35 , Spodina VI 36 , Stoyanova S 37 , Tripathi N 38 , Upadhyay S 38 , Weisfeld C 14 , Yaakob MFM 32 , Yusof MR 32 , Zinurova RI 39

Affiliations 

  • 1 Center of Cross-Cultural Psychology and Human Ethology, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
  • 2 Counseling and Counseling Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States
  • 3 Behavioral Sciences Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  • 4 Department of Psychology, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 5 Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Misan, Amarah, Iraq
  • 6 Department of Anthropology, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 7 Department of Early Childhood, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Zarqa University, Zarqa, Jordan
  • 8 Department of Educational and Psychological Counselling, Irbid National University, Irbid, Jordan
  • 9 Department of Business Administration, Sivas Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey
  • 10 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Yaşar University, İzmir, Turkey
  • 11 Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
  • 12 Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
  • 13 Department of Psychology, İzmir University of Economics, İzmir, Turkey
  • 14 Department of Psychology, University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit, MI, United States
  • 15 Faculty of Bioengineering and Veterinary Medicine, Don State Technical University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
  • 16 Department of Sociology, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba, Nigeria
  • 17 Department of Psychology, Saint Mary's University, Halifax Regional Municipality, NS, Canada
  • 18 Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences and Department of Sociology, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
  • 19 Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 20 Department of Pedagogy and Problems of Education Development, Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus
  • 21 Department of History, St John's University of Tanzania, Dodoma, Tanzania
  • 22 Department of Psychology, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 23 Faculty of Education, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand
  • 24 Department of Anthropology, Hitit University, Çorum, Turkey
  • 25 Faculty of Media Communications and Multimedia Technologies, Don State Technical University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
  • 26 School of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States
  • 27 Pasundan University, Bandung, Indonesia
  • 28 Department for General and Evolutionary Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary
  • 29 Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of History, Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia
  • 30 State Intelligence College, Bogor, Indonesia
  • 31 Department of Pure & Applied Psychology, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba, Nigeria
  • 32 School of Education, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Malaysia
  • 33 Institute of Psychology, University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 34 Department of Psychology, The University of Haripur, Haripur, Pakistan
  • 35 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Smell and Taste Clinic, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
  • 36 Department of History and Ethnology, Ob-Ugric Institute of Applied Researches and Development, Pasundan University, Bandung, Indonesia
  • 37 Department of Psychology, South-West University "Neofit Rilski", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
  • 38 Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, India
  • 39 Institute of Innovation Management, Kazan National Research Technological University, Kazan, Russia
Front Psychol, 2022;13:805586.
PMID: 35664191 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.805586

Abstract

The COVID-19 restrictions have impacted people's lifestyles in all spheres (social, psychological, political, economic, and others). This study explored which factors affected the level of anxiety during the time of the first wave of COVID-19 and subsequent quarantine in a substantial proportion of 23 countries, included in this study. The data was collected from May to August 2020 (5 June 2020). The sample included 15,375 participants from 23 countries: (seven from Europe: Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Russia; 11 from West, South and Southeast Asia: Armenia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey; two African: Nigeria and Tanzania; and three from North, South, and Central America: Brazil, Canada, United States). Level of anxiety was measured by means of the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and the 20-item first part of The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)-State Anxiety Inventory (SAI). Respondents were also asked about their personal experiences with COVID-19, attitudes toward measures introduced by governments, changes in attitudes toward migrants during a pandemic, family income, isolation conditions, etc. The factor analysis revealed that four factors explained 45.08% of variance in increase of anxiety, and these components were interpreted as follows: (1) personal awareness of the threat of COVID-19, (2) personal reaction toward officially undertaken measures and attitudes to foreigners, (3) personal trust in official sources, (4) personal experience with COVID-19. Three out of four factors demonstrated strong associations with both scales of anxiety: high level of anxiety was significantly correlated with high level of personal awareness of the threat of COVID-19, low level of personal reaction toward officially undertaken measures and attitudes to foreigners, and high level of presence of personal experience with COVID-19. Our study revealed significant main effects of sex, country, and all four factors on the level of anxiety. It was demonstrated that countries with higher levels of anxiety assessed the real danger of a pandemic as higher, and had more personal experience with COVID-19. Respondents who trusted the government demonstrated lower levels of anxiety. Finally, foreigners were perceived as the cause of epidemic spread.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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