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. 2024 May 17;10(10):e31328.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e31328. eCollection 2024 May 30.

Role of self-esteem and personal mastery on the association between social support and resilience among COVID-19 long haulers

Atefeh Aghaei  1   2 , Shan Qiao  1   2 , Cheuk Chi Tam  1   2 , Guangzhe Yuan  1   2 , Xiaoming Li  1   2
Affiliations

Role of self-esteem and personal mastery on the association between social support and resilience among COVID-19 long haulers

Atefeh Aghaei et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Although the COVID-19 mortality rate is declining, the number of individuals dealing with persistent COVID-19 symptoms is increasing worldwide, making long COVID a global public health concern. People with long COVID (long haulers) often deal with physical and mental stressors. Long haulers' psychological resilience could play a key role in coping with these stressors in intercorrelation with psychosocial resources. The current study aims to test a hypothesized relationship between social support and its functions (i.e., instrumental and emotional) and the resilience of long haulers through serial mediation by personal mastery and self-esteem. A cross-sectional and self-administered online survey was conducted among 460 individuals with long COVID recruited from COVID-19 Facebook support groups in the United States. Analyzing data indicated a positive correlation between social support and the resilience of long haulers. Structural equation modeling suggested that self-esteem and personal mastery fully mediated the association between social (instrumental) support and resilience. Personal mastery also mediated the association between self-esteem and resilience in social (instrumental) support models. However, in the emotional support model, the indirect effect was non-significant for the mediation by personal mastery and self-esteem. Findings suggest that social support, mainly instrumental support, may protect long haulers by promoting their resilience through self-esteem and personal mastery. This study emphasizes the importance of including social support services in designing programs for COVID-19 long haulers.

Keywords: Long COVID; Personal mastery; Resilience; Self-esteem; Social support.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:Shan Qiao reports financial support was provided by 10.13039/100000002National Institutes of Health. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Hypothesized model of social support impact on long haulers' psychological resilience.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Three versions of structural model including A) social support model, B) instrumental support model, and C) emotional support model for the whole sample (N = 460), with standardized beta weights and significant levels. Solid and dashed lines indicate significant and nonsignificant paths in the model. *p ≤ 00.05, **p ≤ 00.01, ***p ≤ 00.001.
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