From Mindfulness to Flow in the Coronavirus Pandemic: Investigating the mediating role of psychological capital and coping competence. (a cross-sectional study of pre-Hospital Emergency staff)

Background: The present study aims to investigate whether and how mindfulness leads to the flow experience in high-pressure situations during the coronavirus pandemic peak, especially in high-risk, challenging contexts such as emergencies. So, the authors aim to expand existing knowledge about experiencing flow at work, specifically in the crisis context of the COVID-19 period, when challenges convert to hindrance demands. Before examining the possible processes and mechanisms in this relationship, we examined the mediating role of two variables: psychological capital and coping competence.

Method: The statistical population of this study consists of all employees of emergency centers in Mashhad, Iran; there were 550 at the time of the study. Using a simple random sampling method and the Morgan table, a sample of 220 people was considered. A structural equation model, AMOS, and SPSS software were used to analyze the collected data.

Result: The results emphasize that among employees who experienced mindfulness, an optimal experience did not necessarily occur, specifically in those situations in which challenge stressors become hindrance stressors. Although the association of mindfulness and coping competence was verified, its association with flow through coping competence was rejected. It is verified that mindfulness would be associated with flow through psychological capital.

Conclusion: The study extends our understanding of occurring flow at high-risk work environments in which challenges are not motivational. The authors studied the experience of flow in a work context with challenges that appear in the form of hindrance demands, different from the previous ones that have studied flow experience in challenging and motivating contexts such as sports contexts, including mountain climbing, surfing, and similar cases. In addition, there was no consensus in different past studies about associating mindfulness with flow experience. Therefore, in this case, further study had been left to future studies. Moreover, the process of this relationship through the mediating role of psychological capital and coping competence has not been investigated in previous studies.