Mental health and psychological resilience during COVID-19 : a study of the general population in Saudi Arabia

Abstract EN

Objective : due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, Health con cerns increased dramatically across the world, and rigid qua rantine measures and social distancing were imposed to contain the spread of the virus, which might have affected the people's mental health.

therefore, this study sought to evaluate the po pulation's mental health in Saudi Arabia and examine whether a person's psychological resilience could mitigate the adverse impacts of quarantine on their mental health.

methods : an on line survey was distributed, and data from a total of 884 adults were obtained after having spent one month under quarantine conditions.

results : the findings revealed that the mental he alth levels of most of the sample (88.1%) were poor.

Indivi duals who were younger, not married and students had better mental health in comparison to other groups.

a positive co rrelation (0.390) existed between an individual's psychologi cal resilience and their mental health status during quarantine.

conclusion : the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the mental health of the general population of Saudi Arabia, and the degree of their mental health was directly proportional to their level of psychological resilience.