The role of resilience, mentalization and alexithymia in predicting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and post-traumatic growth in COVID-19 Survivors

  Introduction: In addition to causing psychological problems, traumatic events can also bring positive changes. Therefore, in order to investigate the significant difference in people's reactions to traumatic life experiences, it is very important to know the important psychological mechanisms; therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the role of resilience, mentalization and alexia in predicting the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and post-traumatic growth in in COVID-19 Survivors. Methods: The method of this research is descriptive-correlation. The statistical population of this research included people who survived the corona disease in Kermanshah city. For this purpose, 380 of these people were selected by convenience sampling method and answered the post-traumatic growth questionnaire (PTGI), PCL-C questionnaire, resilience scale, Reflective Functioning Questionnaire and Toronto alexithymia Scale. Results: The results showed that there is a negative and significant relationship between resilience, the confidence component of mentalization and post-traumatic stress disorder (P<0.01). There is a positive and significant relationship between resilience, the confidence component of mentalization and post-traumatic growth (P<0.01). There is a positive and significant relationship between Alexithymia and post-traumatic stress disorder (P<0.01). There is a negative and significant relationship between Alexithymia and post-traumatic growth (P<0.01). The results of multiple regression analysis also revealed that 683.9% of the variance of post-traumatic disorder and 74.8% of the variance of post-traumatic growth are explained by resilience, mentalization and Alexithymia. Conclusions: The results of the research showed that it is important to focus on two dimensions of negative and positive reactions to the corona disease and the role of important mechanisms involved in it. In other words, the findings showed that resilience, mentalization and alexithymia can predict symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and post-traumatic growth in in COVID-19 Survivors