Cited by 142COVID-19 and Mental HealthPosttraumatic Stress Disorder ResearchAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes

COVID-19 and traumatic stress: The role of perceived vulnerability, COVID-19-related worries, and social isolation

Open access
Boyraz, Güler, Legros, Dominique N., Tigershtrom, Ashley·2020·Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to propose and test two models to understand the relationship between perceived vulnerability to COVID-19 (PVC) and COVID-19-related traumatic stress (TS), as well as the variables that may mediate and moderate this relationship among individuals who have not yet been infected with COVID-19. Using an online survey, data were collected between late March and early April 2020. Participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk and included 747 adults living in the United States. Supporting our hypotheses, results indicated that both COVID-19-related worries and social isolation were significant mediators of the relationship between PVC and TS (Model 1). In addition, the results of a moderated mediation analysis indicated that the indirect effect of PVC on TS through COVID-19-related worries was stronger for participants who reported greater social isolation (Model 2). Although future research is needed, these findings suggest that both social isolation and disease-related worries may be important variables that can be targeted in interventions to reduce pandemic-related TS.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102307

Cites

54 of 54 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, June 25). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): People of any age with underlying medical conditions. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/groups-at-higher-risk.html. 34009770

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Boyraz, G., Legros, D. N., & Tigershtrom, A.
Affiliations
Pace University (US)
Corresponding author
Boyraz, Güler
Venue
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-12
Volume
76
Pages
102307
ISSN
0887-6185 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3084107433
Cited by
142
References
52
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 45 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 2
FWCI
11.01
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Anxiety Disorders (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Pace University Scholarly Research Grant
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, traumatic stress, perceived susceptibility, COVID-19-related worry, social isolation, pandemic stress, moderated mediation
MeSH terms
Psychological Trauma, COVID-19, Adult, Aged, Anxiety, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Pneumonia, Viral, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Isolation, Stress, Psychological, United States, Coronavirus Infections, Young Adult, Pandemics

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review