The Relationship between Neuroticism and Psychological Distress in the Covid-۱۹ Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Perceived Stress and Loneliness

Introduction: Whenever there is an outbreak of infectious diseases, psychosocial impact has been observed on individual and social levels globally. The psychological and social effects of the COVID-۱۹ epidemic are potential and widespread, which affect people's mental health in the long term. The present study aimed to investigate the role of neuroticism in predicting psychological distress through perceived stress and loneliness in covid-۱۹.Method: This research was carried out in the form of correlation and structural equations. The statistical population of the research was all the students of Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, ۳۰۰ of whom were selected through convenience sampling, and the neuroticism scale was from the short form of the Neo questionnaire, the Cohen et al.'s perceived stress questionnaire, the Kessler psychological distress questionnaire, and the loneliness scale. Social Emotional Assessment for Adults (SELSA-S) was administered to them. Then the obtained data were analyzed using Spss۲۶ and Amos۲۲ software.Results: The results showed that neuroticism is related to psychological distress through loneliness and perceived stress. Also, there is a positive and significant relationship between the components of loneliness, perceived stress, and neuroticism with stress, anxiety, and depression.Conclusion: Therefore, considering the increasing spread of psychological distress, it is necessary to reduce people's psychological distress by teaching self-care skills and stress management.

Keywords:

Loneliness , Perceived stress , Psychological distress , neurosis , COVID-۱۹