Psychological Wellbeing during the COVID-19 Pandemic: the influence of personality traits in the Italian population
Open accessAbstract
Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) has had a strong psychological impact on the Italian population. Italy was heavily affected by the virus before other countries in Europe, experiencing the highest number of deaths. Unknown symptoms in the early stages of the pandemic and the absence of clear transmission links affected people’s wellbeing. Individual personality differences played a key role in perceived psychological wellbeing during the pandemic. The present exploratory study sought to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on psychological health and identify how psychological wellbeing is influenced by personality traits. A total of 2103 participants (64% female and 36% male) completed an online survey that included the Psychological General Wellbeing Index (PGWBI), the Italian Short Personality Inventory (ITAPI), and a general questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical regressions were performed using SPSS 25.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) (The findings showed poor psychological wellbeing in the Italian population. Young people reported the lowest scores. Vulnerability traits negatively influenced some PGWBI domains, such as the total score (β = −0.62), anxiety (β = −0.55), depression (β = −0.46), positivity and wellbeing (β = −0.51), vitality (β = −0.45), general health (β = −0.12), and self-control (β = −0.52). On the other hand, dynamism traits positively affected vitality (β = 0.12) and positivity and wellbeing (β = 0.14). In other words, personality factors related to vulnerability in particular created risk, whereas dynamism offered protection. The results highlight how COVID-19 helped to trigger anxious and depressive states. People feel helpless and vulnerable when facing new, unexpected conditions caused by the virus. These findings may assist mental healthcare professionals in safeguarding psychological wellbeing during emergencies such as the pandemic.
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The Italian version of the PGWBI showed good psychometric properties (Cronbach's alpha of Anxiety subscale = 0.85; Depression subscale = 0.80).
“We used the Italian version (Grossi et al., 2002) that showed good psychometric properties (Cronbach’s alpha of Anxiety subscale of the Italian validation = 0.85; Cronbach’s alpha of Depression subscale of the Italian validation = 0.80; Rossi et al., 2021), in agreement with the original version.”
From The Mediating Role of Psychological Inflexibility in the Relationship Between Anxiety, Depression, and Emotional Eating in Adult Individuals With Obesity (2022) · cites this paper as Rossi et al., 2021
The Measures section identifies Grossi et al. as the authors of the Italian PGWBI validation. Results §4.1 compares its reliability with the current sample and describes the overall reliability as similar, but the available text does not give the claimed validation-sample α values of 0.85 for anxiety and 0.80 for depression; the reported 0.90 is for this study’s total scale. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredRecent literature from an Italian sample indicates that vulnerability and helplessness contribute to the development and exacerbation of psychopathology.
“Recent literature within an Italian sample points to vulnerability and helplessness as contributors to the development and exacerbation of psychopathology (Rossi et al., 2021).”
From Prevalence rates of anxiety, depressive, and eating pathology symptoms between the pre- and peri-COVID-19 eras: A meta-analysis (2022) · cites this paper as Rossi et al., 2021
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- Authors
- Rossi, C., Bonanomi, A., & Oasi, O.
- Affiliations
- Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Oasi, Osmano
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2021-05-29
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 5862
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8198634
- OpenAlex
- W3165862849
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 3
- FWCI
- 3.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- PubliCatt (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- D3.1 line, year 2021, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy (D3.1 line, year 2021, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, psychological well-being, personality traits, anxiety, depression, Italian population, youth, self-control, vitality
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adolescent, Anxiety, Depression, Europe, Female, Humans, Italy, Male, Personality, Pandemics
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