This being the case, research has begun to focus on this area.Ī psychological dimension which one might expect to be impacted by the pandemic is state anxiety-a form of anxiety characterised by apprehension, tension, nervousness and worry and which increases in response to stress (Spielberger, 1977). There is, however, an increasing awareness of the psychological aspects of the pandemic-for example, the Royal College of Psychiatrists' ( 2020) report of an increase in urgent cases, and their prediction of a “tsunami” of referrals arising from people not engaging with the services at this time. Research on modes of transmission, identification of vulnerable groups, protective factors, development of treatments and vaccines have predominated. The response of researchers, states and international bodies has of course been to focus on the biomedical aspect of this novel disease. At the time of writing (6 August 2020), there have been over 18,000,000 confirmed cases globally, with a reported death toll of over 700,000 (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 2020). Throughout January, cases began to emerge in countries outside of China, and by February there were increasing numbers of cases in many countries across the globe-a trend which continued into March and beyond. The WHO announced, in early January, that a novel coronavirus might be behind this new infectious disease-now known as Covid-19 (from coronavirus disease 2019)-which was spreading in China. On 31 December 2019, Chinese authorities reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) the existence of a cluster of pneumonia cases of unknown cause. These results may help to understand the adverse impact on mental health. Results indicated that: (a) Resilience was negatively related to state anxiety both bivariately and multivariately (b) number of hours outside per week did not predict state anxiety but was negatively correlated with fear of contagious diseases in the essential workers from the Irish sample (c) national measures had a moderating role in the relationship between resilience and state anxiety and (d) social contact, in terms of numbers of written, audio or visual interactions, was not a statistically significant predictor of state anxiety. While these countries share many characteristics, it was anticipated that their experiences might differ because of pronounced differences in governmental measures and the local severity and history of the pandemic at the time of data collection. ![]() Participants from three countries were recruited: Ireland ( n = 449), Italy ( n = 324) and Spain ( n = 471). The aim of this study is to examine cross-cultural differences in state anxiety, and any moderating role of resilience and social contact. Differences among countries in such matters are of interest as they provide a unique window to understand human behaviour and culture. The spread of Covid-19 is a worldwide phenomenon, unprecedented in modern times.
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