How Having a Clear Why Can Help Us Cope With Almost Anything: Meaningful Well-Being and the COVID-19 Pandemic in México

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in an increase in known risk factors for mental health problems. Mexico adopted lockdown and physical distancing as a containment strategy with potential consequences on day to day life, such as social isolation, loss of income and loneliness that can have important consequences in terms of mental health. Objective: We aimed to examine the effect of the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological distress, well-being and perceived physical health among Mexican-base respondents and to examine whether coping strategies would play a potential intermediating role in relation to these variables. Under the Existential Positive Psychology perspective, an emphasis was made on meaning-centered coping. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between April 30 and June 16th 2020 among 604 Mexicans-base respondents of which 471 were women and 132 men. Data was collected by using online questionnaires. Psychological distress was measured using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). The Brief COPE Inventory was used to assess problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies. We also used the Meaning-Centered Coping Scale (MCCS). PERMA-Profiler was used to assess well-being, perceived physical health, and loneliness. Profiler and Descriptive analyses and bivariate linear regression were performed to examine the association of variables. Results: 45.9% of the participants reported moderate to extremely severe psychological distress. Our results demonstrate that problem-focused and emotion-focused coping were positively related to psychological distress, whereas meaning-centered coping was negatively associated with distress. Furthermore, psychological distress played a potential negative role in the perceived physical health, while meaning-centered coping and well-being buffered the negative influence of psychological distress on perceived physical health (completely standardized indirect effect = –0.01, SE: 0.012, 95% CI [−0.065; −0.017]. Conclusion: Meaning-centered coping was found to suppress the negative influence of psychological distress on sensation of decreased physical health corroborating the critical role of meaning in life in promoting well-being. Future studies can further examine the value of the critical role of meaning in life in promoting well-being as a protective factor against severe distress during traumatic events. Findings of this study can be used to orient policies and interventions aimed to alleviate suffering in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic

Depressive symptoms among Mexican adolescent girls in relation to iron status, anemia, body weight and pubertal status: results from a Latent Class Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: The study examined the association between depressive symptoms and iron status, anaemia, body weight, and pubertal status among Mexican adolescent girls. DESIGN: In this cross-sectional study, depressive symptoms were assessed by the 6-item Kutcher Adolescent Depressive Scale (6-KADS), and latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify and characterize groups of girls based on depressive symptoms. Iron status and inflammation were assessed using ferritin and soluble transferrin receptor, C-reactive protein and alpha-1-acid glycoprotein, respectively. Multiple logistic and linear regression were applied to model class membership as a function of iron status, anaemia, body weight, and pubertal status. PARTICIPANTS: We collected data from 408 girls aged 12-20 years. SETTING: public schools in northern Mexico. RESULTS: LCA yielded three classes of depressive symptoms; 44.4% of the adolescents were "unlikely to be depressed", 41.5% were "likely to be depressed", and 14.1% were "highly likely to be depressed". Our analyses demonstrated that iron deficient girls had greater odds of being "likely depressed" (odds ratio, OR=2.01, 95% CI 1.01-3.00) or "highly likely depressed (OR=2.80, 95% CI 1.76-3.84). Linear regression analyses revealed that lower haemoglobin concentrations and higher body weight increased the probability of being "likely depressed". There was no evidence that depressive symptoms were associated to age at menarche and years since menstruation. CONCLUSION: This study shows that iron deficient adolescent girls are more likely to suffer from depressive symptoms, and that lower concentrations of haemoglobin and higher body weight increased the probability of experiencing depressive symptoms

Psychometric Comparisons of Benevolent and Corrective Humor across 22 Countries: The Virtue Gap in Humor Goes International

Recently, two forms of virtue related humor, benevolent and corrective, have been introduced. Benevolent humor treats human weaknesses and wrongdoings benevolently, while corrective humor aims at correcting and bettering them. Twelve marker items for benevolent and corrective humor (the BenCor) were developed, and it was demonstrated that they fill the gap between humor as temperament and virtue. The present study investigates responses to the BenCor from 25 samples in 22 countries (overall N 7,226). The psychometric properties of the BenCor were found to be sufficient in most of the samples, including internal consistency, unidimensionality, and factorial validity. Importantly, benevolent and corrective humor were clearly established as two positively related, yet distinct dimensions of virtue -related humor. Metric measurement invariance was supported across the 25 samples, and scalar invariance was supported across six age groups (from 18 to 50+ years) and across gender. Comparisons of samples within and between four countries (Malaysia, Switzerland, Turkey, and the UK) showed that the item profiles were more similar within than between countries, though some evidence for regional differences was also found. This study thus supported, for the first time, the suitability of the 12 marker items of benevolent and corrective humor in different countries, enabling a cumulative cross-cultural research and eventually applications of humor aiming at the good