Covid-19 as a continuous and mass trauma: The mediating roles of experiential avoidance in prediction of college students' perceived ability to cope with trauma and perceived stress by fear of Covid-19

In this study, it is aimed to examine the mediating effect of experiential avoidance in predicting the fear of COVID-19 in college students' perceived stress and perceived ability to cope with trauma. The study consisted of two seperate data collection phases to examine the mediating effect in diffirent samples. The sample of the first study consists of 389 students who study in the spring semester of 2020-2021 in formal or non-formal education at various universities in Turkey and aged between 18-29. Data collection of the study was online and between February 22 and March 15, 2021. Individuals aged 30 and over were excluded from the study. Two cases with Z-scores >3.29 were identified as univariate outliers and omitted from the data set. 77.6% of the sample is female and 22.1% male. The sample of the second study consists of 385 students who study in the autumn semester of 2021-2022 in Aydın Adnan Menderes University and aged between 18-29. Data collection of the study was between October 25 and November 4, 2021. The students filled out paper and pencil surveys. Individuals aged 30 and over were excluded from the study. Two cases with Z-scores >3 were identified as univariate outliers and omitted from the data set. 50.4% of the sample is female and 49.6% male. In the research, Demographic Information Form, Coronavirus 19 Phobia Scale (Arpacı et al., 2020), Acceptance and Action Form-II (Yavuz et al., 2016), Perceived Ability to Cope with Trauma Scale (Arı & Cesur-Soysal, 2019) and Perceived Stress Scale (Eskin et al., 2013) were used as instruments. Using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 24.0, the data were analyzed based on the Structural Equation Modeling. Findings of the first study reveal that the fear of COVID-19 directly and significantly predicts experiential avoidance. Experiential avoidance directly and significantly predicts the perceived ability to cope with trauma and the perceived stress. Also the fear of COVID-19 indirectly and significantly predicts the perceived stress and the perceived ability to cope with trauma through experiential avoidance. Findings of the second study reveals that the fear of COVID-19 directly and significantly predicts experiential avoidance and the perceived ability to cope with trauma. Experiential avoidance directly and significantly predicts the perceived stress. But experiential avoidance doesn't directly and significantly predict the perceived ability to cope with trauma. Also the fear of COVID-19 indirectly and significantly predicts the perceived stress through experiential avoidance. The fear of COVID-19 doesn't indirectly and significantly predict the perceived ability to cope with trauma through experiential avoidance. Then the fear of COVID-19 was remowed from the model and the model was retested. The findings showed that experiantial avoidance directly and significantly predicts the perceived ability to cope with trauma and the perceived stress. The perceived stress directly and significantly predicts the perceived ability to cope with trauma. Also experiential avoidance indirectly and significantly predicts the perceived ability to cope with trauma through the perceived stress. The results were discussed in the context of the studies in the relevant literature. Suggestions for researchers and practitioners for future studies were maked.