Abstract
Preventive Practices Followed During the COVID-19 Pandemic as a Mediating Variable between Illusion of Illness and Psychological and Social Adjustment among Members of Saudi Society
Author(s): Yahia Mubarak Sulaiman Khatatbeh*, Dhafer Bin Mohammed Al-Qahtani and Ahmed Bin SaThis study aimed to identify the preventive practices followed during the COVID-19 pandemic as an intermediary variable between hypochondria and psychological and social adjustment among members of Saudi society.The descriptive correlative and comparative approach and path analysis were used. The study sample consisted of 941 respondents, to whom the measure of preventive practices followed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the hypochondria scale, and the psychological and social adjustment scale were used. The results of the study indicated that the highest preventive practices followed during the COVID-19 pandemic among the study members were health practices, followed by cognitive practices. The behavioral practices ranked last and the level of psychological adjustment recorded a lower degree than social adjustment and a higher level of hypochondria. It was also noted that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship at the level a=0.05 or less between the cognitive practices dimension, the total degree of the behavioral practices scale used during the COVID-19 pandemic, all dimensions of the psychological and social adaptation scale and the total score. It was also observed that there was no relationship for the same three dimensions with psychological adjustment and that there was a negative relationship between all dimensions of the measure of preventive practices followed during the COVID-19 pandemic, except for the dimension of social practices and the overall degree of the disease delusion scale. And the preventive practices behavioral, cognitive and social explained an amount of 93% of the psychological and social adaptation to COVID-19 disease, and there was a statistically significant effect of cognitive, behavioral, and social practices on psychological and social adaptation at the level of significance p<=0.05. It was also noted that the modified effect of hypochondria on the relationship between cognitive preventive practices, behavioral practices and psychological and social adaptation with COVID-19 was not accepted. There was a modified effect of hypochondria on the relationship between social preventive practices and psychological and social adaptation with COVID-19 at the level of significance p<=0.5.