Background

Little consideration has been given to the impact of COVID-19 on people at risk of psychosis despite their particular preexisting vulnerability. We aimed to examine the role of coping strategies in determining the levels of fear in nonclinical students with high levels of self-reported schizotypal personality traits as compared to low-schizotypy controls.

Method

This was a cross-sectional survey. The Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, the Fear of COVID-19 Scale and The Brief-Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced were used.

Results

High-schizotypy students had significantly higher maladaptive strategies scores and higher levels of fear of COVID-19 as compared to low-schizotypy students. Multivariate analyses have shown that high-schizotypy individuals were likely to rely on coping responses that are maladaptive (venting) and have potential exacerbating effects on fear of COVID-19, whereas low-schizotypy individuals were likely to use adaptive responses (acceptance) that seemed to be effective in reducing fear of COVID-19.

Conclusion

This study provided preliminary cross-sectional evidence for a differential impact of COVID-19 on individuals according to their schizotypy features. However, larger longitudinal population-based studies are necessary to confirm our findings.

中文翻译：

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突尼斯大学生如何应对对 COVID-19 的恐惧？跨分裂型特征的比较

背景

很少考虑 COVID-19 对有精神病风险的人的影响，尽管他们之前存在特殊的脆弱性。我们的目的是研究与低分裂型对照相比，应对策略在确定具有高水平自我报告的分裂型人格特征的非临床学生的恐惧水平方面的作用。

方法

这是一项横断面调查。使用了分裂型人格问卷、对 COVID-19 量表的恐惧和对遇到的问题的简要应对取向。

结果

与低分裂型学生相比，高分裂型学生的适应不良策略得分和对 COVID-19 的恐惧程度更高。多变量分析表明，高分裂型个体可能依赖于适应不良（发泄）的应对反应，并且可能会加剧对 COVID-19 的恐惧，而低分裂型个体可能会使用看似适应性反应（接受）有效减少对 COVID-19 的恐惧。

结论

这项研究提供了初步的横断面证据，证明 COVID-19 根据个体的精神分裂特征对个体产生不同影响。然而，需要更大规模的基于人群的纵向研究来证实我们的发现。