The mediating role of mental health between social support and resilience in health workers before and during the pandemic: A structural analysis

Objective (s): The pandemic of the COVID-19 caused a wave of mental health problems in people. Resilience and social support can act as psychological factors to protect individuals from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 crisis and enable individuals to make positive changes in times of crisis. Based on this, the present study was designed and implemented with the aim of investigating the effect of protective factors such as social support on mental health and its mediating role on resilience in health workers of Tabriz before and during the Covid-19 pandemic Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study is conducted on 350 health workers working in health centers in Tabriz, Iran. Health workers were selected by random cluster sampling. The data were collected using the Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF), the Multidimensional Perceived Social Support (MPSS) and Connor-Davidson resilience questionnaire. Data were analyzed by Amos 22 software. Results: The results of the structural model showed that in coronavirus conditions, the direct effect of social support on resilience and the direct effect of social support on mental health were greater than in the situation before the outbreak of COVID-19. Also, the direct effect of mental health on resilience in the corona situation was higher than before the corona. The indirect effect of social support through mental health on resilience was also higher in the corona situation. Conclusion: The findings of the present study showed that in difficult conditions, such as the prevailing Corona pandemic, impressive social support, can improve mental health and resilience.