Chong, Yuen YuChien, Wai TongCheng, Ho YuĻubenko, JeļenaLamnisos, DemetrisPresti, GiovambattistaSquatrito, ValeriaConstantinou, MariosNicolaou, ChristianaPapacostas, SavvasAydin, GökçenRuiz, Francisco J.Garcia-Martin, Maria B.Obando-Posada, Diana P.Segura-Vargas, Miguel A.Vasiliou, Vasilis S.McHugh, LouiseHöfer, StefanBaban, AdrianaNeto, David Diasda Silva, Ana NunesMonestès, Jean LouisAlvarez-Galvez, JavierBlarrina, Marisa PaezMontesinos, FranciscoSalas, Sonsoles ValdiviaŐri, DorottyaKleszcz, BartoszLappalainen, RaimoIvanović, IvaGosar, DavidDionne, FrederickMerwin, Rhonda M.Gloster, Andrew T.Karekla, MariaKassianos, Angelos P.2022-02-222022-02-222021-04-14Chong, Y Y, Chien, W T, Cheng, H Y, Ļubenko, J, Lamnisos, D, Presti, G, Squatrito, V, Constantinou, M, Nicolaou, C, Papacostas, S, Aydin, G, Ruiz, F J, Garcia-Martin, M B, Obando-Posada, D P, Segura-Vargas, M A, Vasiliou, V S, McHugh, L, Höfer, S, Baban, A, Neto, D D, da Silva, A N, Monestès, J L, Alvarez-Galvez, J, Blarrina, M P, Montesinos, F, Salas, S V, Őri, D, Kleszcz, B, Lappalainen, R, Ivanović, I, Gosar, D, Dionne, F, Merwin, R M, Gloster, A T, Karekla, M & Kassianos, A P 2021, 'Patterns of psychological responses among the public during the early phase of covid-19 : A cross-regional analysis', International journal of environmental research and public health, vol. 18, no. 8, 4143. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph180841431661-7827https://dspace.rsu.lv/jspui/handle/123456789/7623Funding Information: Funding: The study was supported by the Seeding Research Fund, The Nethersole School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.This study aimed to compare the mediation of psychological flexibility, prosociality and coping in the impacts of illness perceptions toward COVID-19 on mental health among seven regions. Convenience sampled online survey was conducted between April and June 2020 from 9130 citizens in 21 countries. Illness perceptions toward COVID-19, psychological flexibility, prosociality, coping and mental health, socio-demographics, lockdown-related variables and COVID-19 status were assessed. Results showed that psychological flexibility was the only significant mediator in the relationship between illness perceptions toward COVID-19 and mental health across all regions (all ps = 0.001–0.021). Seeking social support was the significant mediator across subgroups (all ps range = <0.001–0.005) except from the Hong Kong sample (p = 0.06) and the North and South American sample (p = 0.53). No mediation was found for problem-solving (except from the Northern European sample, p = 0.009). Prosociality was the significant mediator in the Hong Kong sample (p =0.016) and the Eastern European sample (p = 0.008). These findings indicate that fostering psychological flexibility may help to mitigate the adverse mental impacts of COVID-19 across regions. Roles of seeking social support, problem-solving and prosociality vary across regions.19752063enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessCOVID-19Mental healthProsocialityPsychological flexibilitySurvey3.3 Health sciences5.1 Psychology1.1. Scientific article indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus databasePollutionPublic Health, Environmental and Occupational HealthHealth, Toxicology and MutagenesisSDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being/dk/atira/pure/researchoutput/researchoutputtypes/contributiontojournal/article10.3390/ijerph18084143http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104038712&partnerID=8YFLogxK