An outbreak of xenophobia: Perceived discrimination and anxiety in Chinese American college students before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, reports of xenophobic and racist incidents directed at Chinese Americans have escalated. The present study adds further understanding to potential psychosocial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing self-reported questionnaire data from two groups of Chinese students attending a public university in western United States: the group who participated in the study before the outbreak of COVID-19 (Pre-COVID, N = 134), and the group who participated at the beginning (during-COVID, N = 64). The aim of the study was to: (a) compare mean differences in perceived discrimination and anxiety between the two groups, (b) test whether COVID-19 moderated the link between perceived discrimination and anxiety, and (c) examine whether media exposure portraying Chinese individuals negatively mediated relations between COVID-19 and discrimination. Results showed that the During-COVID group reported higher perceived discrimination and anxiety than the Pre-COVID group. The link between perceived discrimination and anxiety was stronger for the During-COVID group. Mediation analyses suggested that negative Chinese media exposure partly accounted for the group difference in perceived discrimination. Results suggest that future studies on the psychosocial implications of the COVID-19 pandemic should consider the role of discrimination in understanding the mental health of Chinese American college students.     

Implicit theories of mental health predict anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic in China: The mediating effect of coping styles

This research investigated how implicit theories of mental health (ITMH) influence people's experience of anxiety and depression symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Two thousand and 44 Chinese completed the study during an emergent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Shaanxi, China. The results suggested that ITMH significantly influence people's experience of anxiety and depression symptoms. Both active and passive coping styles significantly mediated the relationship between ITMH and anxiety/depression, with active coping style as a stronger mediator than passive coping style. Implications of the current research for improving people's mental health during pandemics of infectious diseases and directions for future research are discussed.     

Direct and vicarious experiences of discrimination and rumination among Latinos before and during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic

People from racial/ethnic minority groups can experience discrimination in various ways, including both being the direct target of discrimination (directly experienced discrimination) and learning about others' experiences of discrimination (vicariously experienced discrimination). Additionally, the frequency of these experiences may change over time as larger societal changes occur. In this retrospective self-report study, we examined how Latinos' experiences of discrimination changed during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, examining both direct and vicariously experienced discrimination, in real life and online. Participants reported significantly less discrimination in-person during the beginning of the pandemic relative to before the pandemic (both direct and vicarious), but no changes for direct or vicarious discrimination experienced online. We also examined changes in rumination, a maladaptive coping strategy thought to prolong negative effects of discrimination. Rumination was experienced more frequently than discrimination in general and increased during the beginning of the pandemic. Importantly, experiences of discrimination and rumination were related to mental health outcomes, including anxiety, depression, and loneliness.     

Mindfulness May Buffer Psychological Distress in Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Differential Role of Mindfulness Facets

The COVID-19 pandemic strongly impacts adolescents’ mental health, a population particularly vulnerable to mental disorders, highlighting the need to identify protective factors against COVID-19 related psychological distress to inform policies and intervention strategies. Previous research suggests that mindfulness may be a promising factor that can lower the risk of detrimental psychological consequences related to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is currently unknown which aspects of mindfulness contribute most to its protective effects. Moreover, previous studies mainly focused on adult samples. The present study aimed to address this gap by investigating the impact of specific mindfulness facets on adolescents’ COVID-19 related psychological functioning. 246 Dutch-speaking adolescents were recruited via social media to complete a cross-sectional online survey between June 29 and October 11, 2020. Participants were 16–18 years of age, most of them women (71%), and the majority followed the highest level of Belgian secondary education. Logistic regression analyses were performed to test the differential effects of each mindfulness facet on psychological functioning. Our results identified decentering as the facet of mindfulness that was uniquely associated with decreased worry and stress, improved mental health and quality of life, as well as with an increase in social connectedness with others following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unexpectedly, decentering was negatively associated with adolescents’ helping behaviour during compared to before the pandemic. Implications for research on and application of mindfulness are discussed. Taken together, these findings suggest that the facet of decentering, among all facets of mindfulness, may represent the main protective factor against psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Contribution of social support to home-quarantined Chinese college students’ well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: the mediating role of online learning self-efficacy and moderating role of anxiety

Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of quarantine policy led to an unprecedented home-quarantined living and online learning context for Chinese college students. This study aimed to investigate whether and how social support contributed to home-quarantined Chinese college students’ well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, this study examined the mediating role of online learning self-efficacy in explaining how social support contributed to home-quarantined Chinese college students’ well-being. The study also examined the moderating effect of anxiety, which may buffer the effectiveness of social support and online learning self-efficacy in home-quarantined online learning contexts. Data include 2481 responses to an online questionnaire survey from home-quarantined Chinese college undergraduates. Data were analyzed by performing Partial Least Squares regression. Results showed that social support associated positively with home-quarantined Chinese college students’ online learning self-efficacy and well-being. The results revealed a partial mediating effect of online-learning self-efficacy on the positive effect of social support on well-being. The moderating effect analysis found that the positive association of online learning self-efficacy with social support and well-being was stronger in home-quarantined Chinese college students who perceived no anxiety.

     

Rice-farming areas report more anxiety across two years of the COVID-19 pandemic in China

Cultures responded to the COVID-19 pandemic differently. We investigated cultural differences in mental health during the pandemic. We found regional differences in people's reports of anxiety in China over two years from 2020 to 2021 (N = 1186). People in areas with a history of rice farming reported more anxiety than people in wheat-farming areas. Next, we explored more proximal mechanisms that could help link the distal, historical factor of rice farming to people's modern experience of anxiety. Rice areas scored higher on collectivism and tight social norms than wheat areas, and collectivism, rather than norm tightness, mediated the rice-anxiety relationship. These findings advance our understanding of the distal sources of cultural differences, the proximal mechanisms, and mental health problems during the pandemics.     

The effects of COVID-19 stressors and family life on anxiety and depression one-year into the COVID-19 pandemic

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Coronavirus (COVID-19)-related stressors and family health on adult anxiety and depressive symptoms 1 year into the pandemic. The sample consisted of 442 adults living in the United States who were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Data were analyzed using multiple logistic regression. Results indicated that compared to a sample 1 month into the pandemic, participants in the current sample reported worse family health and increases in both positive and negative perceptions of the pandemic on family life and routines. COVID-19 stressors and perceived negative effects of the pandemic on family life increased the odds for moderate-to-severe depression and anxiety while having more family health resources decreased the odds for depression and anxiety symptoms. Participants reported lower odds for worse depression and anxiety since the beginning of the pandemic when they reported more positive family meaning due to the pandemic. The results suggest a need to consider the impact of family life on mental health in pandemics and other disasters.     

Excessive Worrying as a Central Feature of Anxiety during the First COVID-19 Lockdown-Phase in Belgium: Insights from a Network Approach

Since the WHO declared the COVID-19 pandemic on March 11, 2020, the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has profoundly impacted public health and the economy worldwide. But there are not the only ones to be hit. The COVID-19 pandemic has also substantially altered mental health, with anxiety symptoms being one of the most frequently reported problems. Especially, the number of people reporting anxiety symptoms increased significantly during the first lockdown-phase compared to similar data collected before the pandemic. Yet, most of these studies relied on a unitary approach to anxiety, wherein its different constitutive features (i.e., symptoms) were tallied into one sum-score, thus ignoring any possibility of interactions between them. Therefore, in this study, we seek to map the associations between the core features of anxiety during the first weeks of the first Belgian COVID-19 lockdown-phase (n = 2,829). To do so, we implemented, in a preregistered fashion, two distinct computational network approaches: a Gaussian graphical model and a Bayesian network modelling approach to estimate a directed acyclic graph. Despite their varying assumptions, constraints, and computational methods to determine nodes (i.e., the variables) and edges (i.e., the relations between them), both approaches pointed to excessive worrying as a node playing an especially influential role in the network system of the anxiety features. Altogether, our findings offer novel data-driven clues for the ongoing field’s larger quest to examine, and eventually alleviate, the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.     

A growth mindset intervention to improve mental health in adolescents during COVID-19

COVID-19 poses a considerable threat to adolescent mental health. We investigated depression rates in teens from pre to post-COVID. We also explored if leveraging a growth mindset intervention (“Healthy Minds”) could improve adolescent mental health outcomes during the pandemic, especially for adolescents experiencing the most distress. In Study 1, we recruited youth from schools in a rural southern community (N = 239) and used a pre-post design. In Study 2, we recruited an online sample (N = 833) and used a longitudinal randomized control trial design to test the effectiveness of Healthy Minds. Across both studies, there is evidence of higher rates of depression in youth during COVID-19, relative to pre-pandemic numbers. In Study 1, the intervention effectively changed psychological and behavioral processes related to mental health, especially for adolescents experiencing greater COVID-19 stress. However, in Study 2, the intervention failed to impact depression rates or symptoms at follow-up.     

Comparative optimism and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic

Past research suggests that being comparatively optimistic about one's risk for disease is associated with benefits to mental health, such as lowered stress and anxiety. However, few studies have longitudinally examined whether comparative optimism has the same protective benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study examined levels of comparative optimism, changes in comparative optimism over time, and the association between comparative optimism and COVID-related mental and physical health outcomes among a US adult sample during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants completed online surveys at four timepoints, over the course of four weeks in May and June of 2020. Results from paired-samples t-tests revealed that comparative optimism was present, such that participants estimated their risk for COVID-19 as being significantly lower than that of others their age and sex. Results from linear mixed models suggested that people who were more comparatively optimistic reported lower anxiety, depression, and stress. However, at times when people were more comparatively optimistic, they also reported greater depression and poorer sleep quality. Together, the findings suggest that the relationship between comparative optimism and health may be more complex than previously anticipated and further research is needed to examine the potential pathways through which comparative optimism affects health.     

Intolerance of Uncertainty and Health-Related Anxiety in Youth amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: Understanding and Weathering the Continuing Storm

The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis that continues to impact individuals worldwide. While children may be less susceptible to severe medical complications, they are nonetheless vulnerable to stress and anxiety associated with the pandemic. However, current understanding of psychological functioning and potential strategies to mitigate distress amid a pandemic is naturally limited. Consequently, this article is an attempt to fill that gap. Existing literature on pandemics, health-related anxieties, intolerance of uncertainty, and psychopathological sequelae is summarized within the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. Conclusions from the empirical data and emerging theoretical models are reviewed and synthesized. Finally, several potentially engaging and effective examples of developmentally appropriate interventions targeting intolerance of uncertainty and health-related anxieties in pediatric patients during the peri- and post-pandemic periods are described.

     

Treating Social Anxiety in an Era of Social Distancing: Adapting Exposure Therapy for Youth During COVID-19

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused widespread disruption to our traditional way of life and mental health therapy has not been spared. A combination of increased anxiety, diminished social opportunities, and the shift to telehealth service provision presents particular challenges for the treatment of social anxiety in youth, which relies heavily on exposures to social situations with peers, adults, or other feared social stimuli. The objective of this commentary is to provide guidance to clinicians working with youth with social anxiety on how to maintain ethical, evidence-informed provision of exposure therapy in light of these unusual circumstances. We first present an overview of how COVID-19 may uniquely impact youth with social anxiety and highlight the importance of continuing to provide exposure-based treatments during this time. We then discuss guiding principles for delivering exposure therapy during COVID-19. We focus on providing practical examples of how common social anxiety exposures can be adapted and delivered successfully through telehealth while abiding by COVID-19 social distancing guidelines. Finally, we discuss key recommendations to assist clinicians in moving treatment forward while considering changing safety guidelines pertaining to COVID-19.     

COVID-19 lockdown anxiety harms newcomers' job satisfaction: A cross-lagged panel analysis during snap lockdowns in China

The COVID-19 pandemic may have been a difficult time to join a new organization. Drawing on the feelings-as-information theory, this study explores how COVID-19 lockdown anxiety influenced newcomers' job satisfaction during their first few months of work. We tested 357 new employees working in 84 cities across China. We conducted a longitudinal study, and participants were invited to complete the same survey at two time points. Cross-lagged panel analysis was conducted to test our hypotheses. We confirmed that COVID-19 lockdown anxiety at Time 1 predicted less job satisfaction at Time 2, whereas the data did not support the idea of reverse causality. These findings suggest public health crises like the pandemic can impact newcomers' job satisfaction, especially during China's Zero-Covid Policy.     

Links between rational and irrational beliefs,trait anxiety and fear of COVID 19

IntroductionOur beliefs and knowledge influence the way we act, react, or adapt to an aversive situation such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to explore factors that may influence perceived fear of COVID-19.MethodologyThree hundred and forty-two people from the general population participated in this study. The participants completed an online anamnestic questionnaire that included questions regarding feelings of vulnerability to illness, fear of COVID-19, rational and irrational beliefs about COVID-19, and trait anxiety.ResultsA stepwise regression analysis showed that trait anxiety, irrational and rational beliefs, and having comorbidities linked to severe forms of the disease were associated with perceived vulnerability concerning health and fear of COVID-19.DiscussionThis study seems to underline the importance of pre-existing vulnerabilities that were exacerbated during the pandemic.     

Mediation of Mothers’ Anxiety and Parenting in Children’s Behavior Problems during COVID-19

The outbreak of COVID-19 is affecting the lives of millions of families around the world. The current study was carried out in Israel, following the pandemic’s initial outbreak and during the resulting enforced quarantine, confining parents and children to their homes. A sample of 141 Israeli mothers with at least one child between the ages of 3 and 12 (M?=?6.92, SD?=?2.55) participated as volunteers. About half the sample (50.7%) consisted of girls. Most mothers were cohabiting with a spouse (93%). Mothers completed online questionnaires about their perceptions about the health and economic threats of COVID-19, availability of social support, their anxiety symptoms, hostile/coercive and supportive/engaged parenting behavior, and their children’s behavior problems. Results showed expected significant associations between the mothers’ reports about having little social support, their anxiety symptoms, hostile/coercive and supportive/engaged parenting behavior, and children’s externalizing problems. Likewise, expected significant associations were found between mothers’ perceptions about the health and economic threats of COVID-19, their anxiety symptoms, hostile/coercive parenting behavior, and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. Importantly, maternal anxiety and hostile/coercive parenting behavior mediated the associations between lack of support, negative perceptions about the health and economic threats of COVID-19, and children’s behavior problems. These findings stress the importance of mothers’ mental health and parenting behaviors for children’s socioemotional adaptation in the context of COVID-19. Implications of the findings for family interventions intended to help parents and children at this time are suggested.

     

Disparagement humor permits unsafe COVID-19 behaviors: A prejudiced norm perspective

Extending prejudiced norm theory, we hypothesized that memes diminishing the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic promote tolerance of unsafe pandemic behaviors (as in contrary to contemporary advice of public health agencies, i.e., not wearing a protective mask) by establishing a perceived norm of tolerance for such behaviors. In Spring 2021, members of several Reddit communities (n = 106) reported their perceived threat of COVID-19 and then completed a roleplay exercise in which they imagined they were with a group of friends in a church setting. In this context, participants viewed memes shared among their friends that belittled COVID-19 (COVID-19 disparagement condition) or memes unrelated to COVID-19 (control condition). Then, participants responded to a vignette describing a woman confronting an usher about a couple who violated protocol by not wearing masks. The results supported our hypothesis. First, participants in the COVID-19 disparagement condition perceived a greater norm of tolerance of the mask protocol violation among others in the immediate context compared to those in the control condition. Second, for participants who viewed COVID-19 as a low threat, that local norm resulted in greater personal tolerance of the mask protocol violation. However, for participants who view COVID-19 as a high threat, the local norm had no impact on their personal tolerance.     

Behavioral,Affective, and Cognitive Parenting Mechanisms of Child Internalizing and Externalizing Problems during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased mental health concerns, including depression and anxiety among parents and internalizing and...     

Mental Health Inequalities During COVID-19 Outbreak: The Role of Financial Insecurity and Attentional Control

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns negatively impacted the mental health of populations. This impact is not equally distributed and increases existing mental health inequalities. Indeed, government restrictions and the economic consequences of the pandemic affect more the less educated and less wealthy people. However, psychological processes implicated in this increase of mental health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic remain unexplored. The present study (N=591) tested the role of financial insecurity and attentional control in the relation between socioeconomic status and mental health, along with the influence of trait anxiety. Based on Structural Equation Modelling, findings showed a mediation effect of financial insecurity, but not of attentional control, in the relationship between socioeconomic status and mental health. In addition, exploratory analyses suggested that financial insecurity also mediated the effect of attentional control on mental health. Results of the present research point at the importance of understanding psychological processes implicated in the effect of economic crises on mental health inequalities.     

In this together: Psychological wellbeing of foreign workers in the United Arab Emirates during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated infection prevention and control measures (e.g. quarantine, lockdown and isolation), have had an adverse impact on mental health. To date, the mental health status and challenges of foreign workers during the pandemic have been neglected in the literature. This cross-sectional web-based survey assessed levels of post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety and insomnia among an international sample of foreign workers (n = 319) resident in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The majority of participants were female (76%), European (69%) and highly educated (83% had a bachelor's or higher degree). Results indicate high rates of post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and insomnia, especially among women, younger individuals, and those with a previous diagnosis of a psychological disorder. Additionally, foreign workers' perceptions of pandemic severity in their home nations (mild, moderate, severe) were positively correlated with their symptom levels of depression, anxiety and insomnia. Overall, these findings may help inform future public mental health strategy and pandemic preparedness plans with reference to safeguarding the psychological wellbeing of foreign workers.     

Adaptations of an Integrated Behavioral Health Program During COVID-19

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has consistently been described as an “unprecedented” global health crisis. While the focus has been primarily on the medical and economic impact of the pandemic, psychological sequelae are anticipated. Primary care is the main point of access for mental health care in the United States, making it the ideal locale to provide psychological services for a larger proportion of the population than traditional mental health care settings. The aim of this paper is to describe how our multi-state, multi-site integrated primary care program adapted and applied cognitive behavioral therapy in the context of COVID-19. Access to mental health care was disrupted despite burgeoning mental health concerns, necessitating novel approaches to providing care. A stepped-care approach was implemented within our primary care practice, which consisted of a combination of low-intensity, high-yield stress management and resiliency building resources and cognitive behavioral therapy that were delivered flexibly based on patient preference, technological capabilities, state ordinances, insurance coverage, and institutional policies. The lessons learned from this experience can inform other integrated primary care clinics in responding to the current and future pandemics.