THE ROLE OF THE CORONAVIRUS DANGER PERCEPTIONS IN MEDIATING RESPIRATORY FUNCTION DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The aim of the study is to prove the conditionality of dysfunctional breathing (DB) that occurs during the COVID-19 pandemic by the severity of the experienced psychological distress, indicating the mediating role of ideas about the coronavirus and the pandemic in this process. The methodological complex of the study included: (1) The author’s socio-demographic questionnaire (Pervichko, et al., 2020); (2) The questionnaire “Perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic” (Pervichko, et al., 2020); (3) the Nijmegen questionnaire (NQ) to assess the presence of signs of DB (Van Dixhoorn, Duivenvoordent, 1985; Pervichko, et al., 2022); (4) “Perceived Stress Scale-10” (Ababkov, et al., 2016; Cohen, Kamarck, Mermelstein, 1983); (5) State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, et al., 1983; Khanin, 1976; Leonova, 2013). Empirical data was collected online from April 27, 2020 to December 31, 2020. The sample consisted of 1,362 respondents who consider themselves not infected with COVID-19 at the time of filling out the questionnaire, living in all regions of Russia (average age 38.3±11.4 years). Using the structural modeling method, it was proved that the variable “Psychological distress” significantly affects the variable “Dysfunctional breathing”, both directly and indirectly, being mediated by two of the three components of the ideas about the danger of coronavirus identified by us: the variables “Threat to life” and “Fear of an unknown disease (+) / awareness of the disease (-)”. It was shown that the magnitude of the direct influence of emotional distress on the formation of dysfunctional breathing symptoms is more than nine times greater than the magnitude of its indirect influence (0.494 and 0.060, respectively). The study substantiates that the determinative effect of emotional distress on the occurrence and intensification of dysfunctional breathing symptoms, mediated by perceptions of the danger of coronavirus, is possible due to the appearance of such a psychological formation as the subjective pattern of the disease, which in the case of the analysis of a new coronavirus infection has a certain specificity.