How Implicit Attitudes toward Vaccination Affect Vaccine Hesitancy and Behaviour: Developing and Validating the V-IRAP.

Vaccination is one of the most important ways of fighting infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. However, vaccine hesitancy and refusal can reduce adherence to vaccination campaigns, and therefore undermine their effectiveness. Although the scientific community has made great efforts to understand the psychological causes of vaccine hesitancy, studies on vaccine intention have usually relied on traditional detection techniques, such as questionnaires. Probing these constructs explicitly could be problematic due to defense mechanisms or social desirability. Thus, a measure capable of detecting implicit attitudes towards vaccination is needed. To achieve this aim, we designed and validated a new test called the Vaccine-IRAP, or V-IRAP, which is a modified version of the original Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure, or IRAP, task. The V-IRAP allows the unspoken reasons behind vaccine hesitancy to be investigated, and is able to distinguish between positive and negative beliefs on vaccination. The test was assessed in a sample of 151 participants. The V-IRAP showed good internal reliability and convergent validity, with meaningful correlational patterns with explicit measures. Moreover, it revealed incremental validity over such explicit measures. Lastly, the V-IRAP was able to shed light on the implicit attitudes involved in vaccine refusal, revealing negative attitudes relative to vaccine-related risks in non-vaccinated participants. Overall, these results support V-IRAP as a sensitive and reliable tool that could be used in future studies on implicit attitudes toward vaccination.

Emergency Stress, Hardiness, Coping Strategies and Burnout in Health Care and Emergency Response Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: Stress is a growing problem in the general population, but most especially for workers responding to the COVID-19 crisis. The present study examines stress and Burnout in Health Care workers and Emergency Responders during the third COVID wave in Italy. In addition, we explore the value of psychological Hardiness and positive coping strategies as protective factors against the ill-effects of stress. Methods: Over a 5-month period in 2021, surveys were administered across all Italian regions to several groups including Health Care workers (N = 220), Emergency Responders (firefighters, civil protection, ambulance personnel; N = 121), volunteer Italian Red Cross workers (N = 328), and a comparison group (N = 400) drawn from the General Population of Italy. Results: Results showed that among the groups, Health Care workers had the highest levels of Emergency Stress, while the Red Cross volunteers had relatively lower stress levels. Hardiness and positive coping levels were highest among Red Cross workers, and lowest in the General Population sample. The biggest impact on Burnout was seen among health care workers, especially on Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization. Multiple regression results showed that Hardiness operates as a moderator of the effects of Emergency Stress on Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization aspects of Burnout, while problem focused coping and Stopping Negative Thoughts-Emotions also showed moderating effects. Conclusion: These results suggest that Health Care workers and Emergency Responders would benefit from additional training in hardiness and positive coping skills.

Coping With COVID-19: Emergency Stress, Secondary Trauma and Self-Efficacy in Healthcare and Emergency Workers in Italy.

Coping with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a significant risk factor for the psychological distress of health workers. Hence, this study explores the relationship between coping strategies used by healthcare and emergency workers in Italy to manage the stress factors related to the COVID-19 emergency, which may result in the risk of developing secondary trauma. We study differences between healthcare (n = 121) and emergency workers (n = 89) in terms of their coping strategies, emergency stress, and secondary trauma, as well as the relationships of these differences to demographic variables and other stress factors (Instructions and Equipment). For this purpose, we collected data from participants through the following questionnaires online: Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale - Italian Version, The Coping Self-Efficacy Scale - Short Form, an original questionnaire on stressors, and the Emergency Stress Questionnaire (to assess organizational-relational, physical, decisional inefficacy, emotional, cognitive, and COVID-19 stress). We performed a t-test, correlational analysis, and hierarchical regression. The analyses reveal that compared with the emergency worker group, the health worker group has greater levels of emergency stress and arousal and is more willing to use problem-focused coping. Healthcare workers involved in the treatment of COVID-19 are exposed to a large degree of stress and could experience secondary trauma; hence, it is essential to plan prevention strategies for future pandemic situations. Moreover, individual efficacy in stopping negative emotions and thoughts could be a protective strategy against stress and secondary trauma.