Emotional Processing and Psychological Well-Being of Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Objectives: The present cross-sectional web-based survey study aimed to examine the impact of gender and frontline/non-frontline condition on psychological health (depression and peritraumatic distress) of a sample of Italian healthcare workers, and to explore the mediating effects of emotional processing in these relationships. Methods: Emotional processing styles and depressive and peritraumatic distress symptoms were assessed between March and December 2021, a period which in Italy corresponds to the third and the start of the fourth wave of COVID-19, along with gender, frontline versus non-frontline role in the pandemic emergency, and other sociodemographic and background variables. Results: Results showed that emotional processing mediated the relationship between gender and frontline/non-frontline role with depressive and peritraumatic distress symptomatology. Being a woman, working on the frontlines, and having a maladaptive emotional processing style increased the negative effects of stress during the pandemic. Conclusions: The obtained results strengthen the importance of providing useful psychological support for health professionals to facilitate the expression and management of emotions as well as the learning of healthy and functional styles of emotional processing.