Editorial: Mindfulness and mental health in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic

[Extract] COVID-19, associated public health measures—such as quarantine lockdown, the cessation of lockdown, re-lockdown—and media coverage of the spread of the virus, have contributed to psychological fear and anxiety on a global scale. As of 6 April 2023, globally 762,201,169 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 6,893,190 deaths have been reported to WHO. Many people have been able to effectively engage mental resources, such as mindfulness, to overcome pandemic-related adversities and stresses and maintain mental health. This Research Topic, including seven papers, aims to explore the impact of mindfulness on the maintenance (and even potential improvement) of psychological wellbeing and mental health in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mindfulness refers to the quality of being aware of the present moment with curious, open-minded, non-judging, non-striving, and acceptant attitudes (Kabat-Zinn, 1982, 2013; Shapiro et al., 2008; Fisher et al., 2023). Mindfulness can provide cognitive flexibility to support the individual to actively construct current experiences and adapt to changing demands and challenging situations brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic by building mental resources and establishing new perspectives (Li et al., 2020)

Bullying behaviors and victimization experiences among adolescent students: the role of resilience

The role of resilience in the relationship between bullying behaviours, victimisation experiences, and self-efficacy was examined. Three hundred and 93 (191 male, 202 female) adolescents (mean age = 15.88, SD = .64) from schools in Coimbatore, India completed scales to assess bullying behaviours and victimisation experiences, resilience, and self-efficacy. Multigroup SEM, with separate groups created according to participant sex, revealed that resilience mediated the relationship between bullying behaviours and self-efficacy in males. Males engaged in bullying behaviours and experienced victimisation more frequently than females. The findings of the study have implication for designing intervention programs to enhance resilience among adolescents and young adults to enable them to manage bullying behaviours

Islamic worldview, religious personality and resilience among Muslim adolescent students in India

The present study attempts to examine the effect of Muslim Religiosity Personality on Resilience. The sample for the study consisted of 200 adolescent Muslim students, from Kerala, India. Both males and females were included in the study. The age of the sample ranged from 15 to 18 years of age. The Muslim Religiosity-Personality Inventory (MRPI) (Krauss and Hamzah, 2009), that purports to assess Islamic religiosity in terms of Islamic worldview and religious personality, was used in the study. Resilience was assessed using the Bharathiar University Resilience Scale (BURS) (Annalakshmi, 2009). Comparison of criterion groups on their scores on the scale using ANOVA revealed that the high and low resilient are distinguished from one another on their religious personality but not on Islamic worldview: The highly resilient were higher on Islamic rituals (religious practice and ritual behaviour indicative of the manifestation of one’s religious worldview) and on Mu’amalat (religiously guided behaviours towards one’s family, fellow human beings and the rest of creation including animals and the natural environment). The findings of the present study suggest that cognitive components alone are not adequate to forge relationship between religion and resilience. They clearly indicate that knowledge alone does not make a significant difference in resilience until it manifests in behaviour. Religiosity is both belief/knowledge and action, and in this present study the resilient participants are those able to actually put their beliefs/knowledge into practice

Religiosity and Regional Resilience to Recession

Literature shows that religiosity can provide individual resilience to life shocks as well as regional resilience to disasters caused by natural hazards. Related work has examined the complicated links between religion and economic growth. Yet few, if any, studies examine the role of regional levels of religiosity on a region's resilience to recession—or how quickly the employment rate returns to pre-recession levels (a common measure of resilience in the economics literature). As the recovery period of the Great Recession cools and economists warn of future economic downturns, all known variables that may be linked with regional resilience are worthy of exploration. Using survey results from the Gosling-Potter Internet Project and General Social Surveys, we applied logarithmic functions to pre- and post-Great Recession employment data for 2,836 U.S. counties. We found a modest and statistically significant association between religious belief and regional resilience to recession. Religiosity was the strongest of sixteen psychosocial variables that we examined in association with the speed of job recovery; despite having negative links with other economic variables. This has particular salience for more rural economies; policy implications are discussed