Emotions and Coping: “What I Feel about It, Gives Me More Strategies to Deal with It?”

Abstract

Background: Personal emotions and affects have been identified and studied in the context 4 of pandemics, as well as coping strategies centered on emotional regulation or the balance between 5 positive and negative emotions. Objectives: to identify an emotion and affect structure in our sample 6 and analyze the relationship of these dimensions to resilient coping in the context of pandemic of 7 COVID 19. Method: Cross-sectional design that involved a non-probabilistic sample with 598 8 participants over the age of 18, with 51.1% female and the average age is 40.73 years. First, we 9 intended to identify the emotional structure through Principal Component Analysis (PCA). And 10 second, linear regression analysis was performed to investigate the emotional dimensions as 11 predictors of coping. Results: An emotional structure with four dimensions, valid and reliable, was 12 identified. The regression model reveals that coping is positively associated with the active and 13 positive dimension and negatively with the negative and moral dimension. Conclusions: emotional 14 dimensions are predictors of coping, in which moral and negative dimensions have a negative effect; 15 active and positive dimension has a positive effect. When designing interventions of coping 16 strategies, we must consider multiple dimensions in emotions and affective states in people who 17 are in vulnerable situations.