mediating effect of coping strategies between personality and anxiety during covid-19

Introduction: several studies have highlighted the psychological consequences (anxiety, depression) of covid-19 in india. however, the effect of personality on anxiety, mediated by coping, remains scarce. method: for carrying out this study, 215 healthy, unmarried, educated indian adults participated in an online form-based study comprising measures of personality (the big five inventory-2-s), coping (coping inventory for stressful situations-21), and anxiety (state-trait anxiety inventory-6). results: analyses were done after controlling gender, age, work, and family status. negative-emotionality and emotion-oriented coping were the highest predictors of anxiety. a contradictory finding showed conscientiousness to predict and increase anxiety upon using coping strategies. emotion-oriented coping mediated the relationship between negative-emotionality and anxiety. open-mindedness had an insignificant total effect on anxiety but reduced it when mediated by emotion-oriented coping. additionally, higher anxiety was reported in those who watched one hour or more of pandemic news per day. conclusion: emotion-oriented coping was found to be an ineffective strategy to alleviate anxiety in those with higher trait neuroticism. the flexibility provided by trait openness facilitated effective use of emotion-oriented coping in reducing anxiety