Covid-19 : trauma, resilience and posttraumatic reconnection : a mixed method study in saudi arabia

Abstract EN

The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted people's mental health around the globe.

Symptoms of trauma have increased drastically due to a perceived lack of control over the COVID-19 crisis, expectations of death or infection, and constant exposure to traumatic news.

Resilience is defined as a person's use of coping skills to cope with traumatic events.

The present research aimed to investigate the impact of resilience on COVID-19 trauma.

An explanatory sequential design with mixed methods and two phases of research was employed.

The first phase involved the use of the Arabic version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) to measure resilience among adults.

The total sample size was 778 participants.

T tests and correlation analysis were used to analyze the participants' questionnaire responses.

The results showed a significant difference in resilience between male and female participants.

Additionally, educational level and familial support were correlated with resilience.

The second phase involved the administration of open-ended questions to gather in-depth information from 17 participants who answered the CD-RISC.

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used in the coding process to analyze the qualitative data.

The findings indicated that the COVID-19 crisis increased trauma symptoms and that participants exhibited cognitive, emotional, and behavioral resilience in coping with the pandemic.

Moreover, a significant finding was that participants engaged in posttraumatic reconnection that emphasized reconnection with the self and others.