The overwhelming impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been experienced by individuals across the world. Additional circumstances unique to students affected their studies during the early stages of the pandemic, with changes in living and studying mid-semester. The current study aimed to investigate predictors of fear of COVID-19 in college students during this acute phase using cross-sectional and longitudinal samples. In total, 175 undergraduate students completed an online questionnaire in the spring 2020 semester following lockdown. A subset of 58 students completed a separate survey in fall 2019, which served as a baseline. For the cross-sectional sample, pre-COVID-19 and current living situations did not predict COVID-19 fears. However, a propensity to experience panic was significantly associated with greater COVID-19 fears. How students coped with the pandemic was not associated with COVID-19 fears, although a greater propensity to use denial as a coping style tended to be related to greater COVID-19 fears. In the longitudinal subsample, students showed decreased positive mood and social stress load while depressive mood increased after lockdown. Their preferred coping styles changed, utilizing more self-distraction and acceptance, and less self-blame and substance use. Findings reflect both positive and negative consequences of the pandemic. The unique changes in students’ lifestyles will need to be met by tailored interventions.
Objectives Prior research indicates that chronic stress increases allostatic load and alters individuals’ affective response to stress. Recent studies have linked health‐related behaviours including poor sleep and physical inactivity with elevated negative affect responses to stress. This study extends prior work to investigate chronic stress experience, sleep, and physical activity as predictors of negative affect and acute stress experience during acute, sustained naturalistic stress. Design Students (N = 637) were assessed during an academic semester and end‐of‐term final exam period. Methods Self‐report ratings of chronic stress experience, negative affect, acute stress experience, sleep, physical activity, demographics, and health were obtained. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses examined the extent to which chronic stress experience, sleep duration and sleep quality, habitual physical activity, and their interactions, predicted changes in negative affect and acute stress experience during final exams. Health‐related behaviours were also examined as mediators between chronic stress experience and changes in negative affect and acute stress experience. Results Greater chronic stress experience and shorter exam period sleep duration, but not habitual sleep duration or physical activity, predicted greater increases in negative affect and acute stress experience. Poorer overall sleep quality was a significant predictor in these models and partially mediated the relation between chronic stress experience and negative affect and acute stress experience. Conclusions Findings highlight the importance of chronic stress experience and sleep in predicting individuals’ affective health during naturalistic stress. Interventions that reduce chronic stress experience and improve sleep may help individuals’ buffer against impairments to affective health during these episodes.
People with asthma may be particularly vulnerable to pandemic-related psychological distress, and research is needed to understand the impact of the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic on their health and well-being. We sought to study the well-being of people with asthma relative to non-asthmatic controls during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also investigated asthma symptoms and COVID-19-related anxiety as potential mediators of distress. Participants completed self-report measures of psychological functioning, including anxiety, depression, stress, and burnout. Controlling for potential confounds, multiple-regression analyses examined differences in psychological health between people with and without asthma. Mediator analyses investigated the role of asthma symptoms and COVID-19-related anxiety in this relationship. 234 adults (111 with asthma, 123 without) participated in an online survey from July to November 2020. During this time, people with asthma reported higher levels of anxiety, perceived stress, and burnout symptoms compared to controls. Elevations in burnout symptoms were found beyond general anxiety and depression (sr2 = .03, p < .001). Reported symptoms typical in both asthma and COVID-19 partially mediated this relationship (Pm = .42, p < .05). People with asthma reported unique psychological challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic including elevated burnout symptoms. Experience of asthma symptoms played a key role in vulnerability to emotional exhaustion. Clinical implications include increased attention to asthma symptom burden within the context of heightened environmental stress and restricted healthcare access.
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