Coronaphobia and Coping among the Bereaved: The Mediating Role of Gardening during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Background: There are growing reports on the benefits of gardening on physical and mental health especially during lockdowns, but very limited studies presented how this affects a person’s fear of COVID-19 and coping from grief and loss.Purpose: This study aimed to assess the mediating effects of gardening on coronaphobia and bereavement coping.Methods: This study utilised a cross-sectional design using self-report scales. A total of 200 participants were selected through referral sampling following a set of criteria. Both researcher-made and standardized questionnaires were utilized in the collection of data. Multiple linear regression was utilized to analyse association between the study variablesResults: Results revealed that gardening has significant partial mediating effects in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and coping (B=-0.078, z=-3.55, p=0.001). Fear of COVID-19 negatively affects gardening (β=-0.157, p=0.001), while gardening positively affects coping (β=0.497, p=0.001). Nevertheless, the results also indicate that even accounting for the mediating role of gardening, fear of COVID-19 still has a negative impact to coping (β=0.148, p=0.001).Conclusion: Gardening is an adaptive practice in ameliorating stress and improving a person’s resilience and bereavement coping. This study adds to the body of knowledge on the benefits of gardening particularly on its mediating role between fear of COVID-19 and bereavement coping. Gardening activities as a complementary intervention may be recommended to bereaved individuals to help them improve coping and grief.