Evaluation of relationship between generalized anxiety disorder symptoms, health anxiety, fear of Covid-19 and cognitive flexibility during Covid-19 pandemic process

The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms and the variables of fear of Covid-19, health anxiety and cognitive flexibility during the Covid-19 pandemic process. The research was carried out with 430 people between the ages of 18-70, 74.4% (320) of whom were women and 25.6% (110) were men. In this study Demographic Information Form, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale(GAD-7),Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI), Turkish version of the Fear of Covid-19 Scale (FCVS-T), Covid-19 Phobia Scale (C19P-S), Health Anxiety Inventory (HAI) were applied to the participants. In this study, independent samples t-test was used to examine whether generalized anxiety level differs according to demographic characteristics. Relationships between variables were tested with Pearson correlation analysis. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to determine the variables predicting the generalized anxiety disorder. When the results of the research were examined, firstly, it was found that the level of generalized anxiety differed according to gender, marital status, being diagnosed with a psychological disorder and having a person in the risk group at home. According to this, it was determined that women, single people, individuals diagnosed with psychological disorders and staying at home with a person in the risk group have a higher level of generalized anxiety. In addition, there was no significant difference between the average scores of the generalized anxiety disorder scale according to the status of having a chronic illness, being diagnosed with Covid-19, and having a close family/family of people diagnosed with Covid-19. The correlation results of the study revealed that generalized axiety disorder, fear of Covid-19, health anxiety and cognitive flexibility were correlated with each other. In the hierarchical regression analysis; Age, gender, health anxiety sensitivity to somatic symptoms and negative consequences sub-dimensions, cognitive flexibility control sub-dimension, Covid-19 fear scale total score, and the psychological, somatic, social and economic sub-dimensions of the Covid-19 Phobia scale were found to be significant predictors of generalized anxiety disorder. Current research findings are discussed in the context of the literature, results and recommendations are presented. Keywords Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Cognitive Flexibility, Health Anxiety, Fear of Covid-19