The Relationship between Anxiety Levels and Perceived Social Support during the Pandemic of COVID-19 in Turkey.

Özmete, Emine; Pak, Melike

The uncertainty which is threatening and stressful prevents a person's perception of control and leads to maladaptive psychological reactions such as anxiety. We aimed to define the relationship between the state/trait anxiety levels and perceived social support in the COVID-19 pandemic as a global crisis and stressor. Our main hypothesis was that perceived social support would negatively affect the levels of anxiety. A cross-sectional community-based study was carried out using the relational screening model. The data were collected between March 20 and April 15, 2020, by using an online survey (N = 630). Anxiety levels of individuals, particularly the state anxiety were high during the pandemic. Also, perceived social support and state/trait anxiety levels were analyzed for various variable categories. Anxiety levels decreased significantly when perceived social support increased. Perceived social support as a determinant of state and trait anxiety should be the focus of social work practices in this period.