Dataset Information

Belief in a just world, perceived control, perceived risk, and hopelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from a globally diverse sample.

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to understand the complex relationships between belief in a just world (BJW), perceived control, perceived risk to self and others, and hopelessness among a globally diverse sample during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The just-world hypothesis suggests that people need to believe in a just world in which they get what they deserve and deserve what they get. Studies have shown that believing in a just world has an adaptive function for individuals. Samples from six countries completed an online questionnaire. A total of 1,250 people participated (934 female) and ages ranged from 16 to 84 years old (M = 36.3, SD = 15.5). The results showed that, when controlling for gender, age, country of residence, and being in a risk group for COVID-19 (e.g., smoker, old age, chronic disease etc.), a stronger personal and general BJW and higher perceived control over the COVID-19 pandemic predicted lower levels of hopelessness. How at-risk participants perceived themselves to be for COVID-19 positively predicted hopelessness, but how risky participants perceived the disease to be for others negatively predicted hopelessness. This study highlights how the distinction between self and others influences hopelessness and how BJW, especially personal BJW, can serve as a psychological resource during times of historic uncertainty.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03172-1.

SUBMITTER: Kiral Ucar G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9119278 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Belief in a just world, perceived control, perceived risk, and hopelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from a globally diverse sample.

Kiral Ucar Gözde G Donat Matthias M Bartholomaeus Jonathan J Thomas Kendra K Nartova-Bochaver Sofya S

Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) 20220519 12

The purpose of this study was to understand the complex relationships between belief in a just world (BJW), perceived control, perceived risk to self and others, and hopelessness among a globally diverse sample during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The just-world hypothesis suggests that people need to believe in a just world in which they get what they deserve and deserve what they get. Studies have shown that believing in a just world has an adaptive function for individuals. Sampl ...[more]

PMID: 35611237

Similar Datasets

Project description:ObjectivesTo examine patterns and predictors of perceived treatment helpfulness for mania/hypomania and associated depression in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys.MethodsFace-to-face interviews with community samples across 15 countries found n = 2,178 who received lifetime mania/hypomania treatment and n = 624 with lifetime mania/hypomania who received lifetime major depression treatment. These respondents were asked whether treatment was ever helpful and, if so, the number of professionals seen before receiving helpful treatment. Patterns and predictors of treatment helpfulness were examined separately for mania/hypomania and depression.Results63.1% (mania/hypomania) and 65.1% (depression) of patients reported ever receiving helpful treatment. However, only 24.5-22.5% were helped by the first professional seen, which means that the others needed to persist in help seeking after initial unhelpful treatments in order to find helpful treatment. Projections find only 22.9% (mania/hypomania) and 43.3% (depression) would persist through a series of unhelpful treatments but that the proportion helped would increase substantially if persistence increased. Few patient-level significant predictors of helpful treatment emerged and none consistently either across the two components (i.e., provider-level helpfulness and persistence after earlier unhelpful treatment) or for both mania/hypomania and depression. Although prevalence of treatment was higher in high-income than low/middle-income countries, proportional helpfulness among treated cases was nearly identical in the two groups of countries.ConclusionsProbability of patients with mania/hypomania and associated depression obtaining helpful treatment might increase substantially if persistence in help-seeking increased after initially unhelpful treatments, although this could require seeing numerous additional treatment providers. In addition to investigating reasons for initial treatments not being helpful, messages reinforcing the importance of persistence should be emphasized to patients.

Project description:Hopelessness is one of the strongest predictors of health and mortality, particularly for older populations. Prior research has found associations between individual-level socioeconomic factors and hopelessness, but less is known about the potential importance of neighborhood-level socioeconomic contexts for hopelessness. In particular, the role of neighborhood disorder as a potential explanatory factor for poor psychological well-being remains underexplored. This study investigates whether neighborhood poverty is associated with a sense of hopelessness among older adults and if perceived neighborhood disorder mediates the link between poverty and hopelessness. Individual-level data came from the 2014/2016 Health and Retirement Study and were merged with neighborhood-level poverty data from the 2012-2016 and 2014-2018 American Community Survey. Linear regression models were employed to examine the association between neighborhood poverty, disorder, and hopelessness. Respondents in neighborhoods with higher poverty levels reported a greater sense of hopelessness (b = 0.11, 95% CI = 0.08, 0.15, p < .001), controlling for individual-level sociodemographic and health characteristics. Greater perceived neighborhood disorder was also positively associated with a sense of hopelessness (b = 0.16, 95%CI = 0.14, 0.18). When we included both neighborhood poverty and disorder in the same model, the association between neighborhood poverty and hopelessness was reduced by two thirds (b = 0.04, 95%CI = 0.0003, 0.07), while the association between perceived disorder and hopelessness remained robust (b = 0.16, 95%CI = 0.14, 0.18). We further examined the formal mediating effects of neighborhood disorder using structural equation modeling. The total effect of neighborhood poverty on hopelessness was significant (β = 0.08, bootstrapped 95%CI = 0.05, 0.10). The direct effect of neighborhood poverty was not significant (β = 0.02, bootstrapped 95% CI = -0.01, 0.04), while the indirect effect through neighborhood disorder was significant (β = 0.06, bootstrapped 95% CI = 0.05, 0.07). Neighborhood disorder mediated 75% of the association between neighborhood poverty and hopelessness. In light of these findings, improving neighborhood conditions, such as signs of disorder, may alleviate feelings of hopelessness in older adults residing in impoverished neighborhoods.

Dataset Information

Belief in a just world, perceived control, perceived risk, and hopelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from a globally diverse sample.

Supplementary information

Publications

Belief in a just world, perceived control, perceived risk, and hopelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from a globally diverse sample.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets