Background The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected public health and wellbeing. In response to the pandemic threat of the coronavirus epidemic, several countries, including China, adopted lockdown and quarantine policies, which may cause psychological distress. This study aimed to explore the psychological impact of province-wide lockdown and personal quarantine during the COVID-19 outbreak in China as well as the corresponding risk factors and protective factors. Methods We examined the immediate (2-week) and delayed (2-month) impact of province-wide lockdown and personal quarantine on psychological distress in a national sample of 1390 Chinese residents. Results No immediate impact of province-wide lockdown on psychological distress was observed, whereas personal quarantine increased individuals’ anxiety, fear, and anger. Despite the lack of initial association, psychological distress increased among those in province-wide lockdown. Self-stigma and personal control both significantly moderated the association between lockdown and psychological distress, but in different directions. Those with higher self-stigma and lower personal control were more impacted by the lockdown. Government support moderated the impact of quarantine on psychological distress, but not that of lockdown. Conclusions The delayed effects of lockdown and quarantine on psychological distress were observed, and self-stigma, social support, and perceived control moderate the relationships. This study is the first to demonstrate the psychological costs of province-wide lockdowns on individuals’ mental health, providing evidence of the need for mitigation strategies and timely public mental health preparedness in countries with recent outbreaks of COVID-19.

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A population-based, longitudinal study was conducted among 29 provinces in mainland China to investigate how public trust in physicians (PTP) changed since the outbreak of COVID-19 and how the resulting lockdown and social support contributed to its restoration. The baseline sample ( n = 3,233) was obtained during the period of the most rapid progression of COVID-19 (February 1 to 9, 2020, T1). Follow-up ( n = 1,380) took place during the recovery period (March 17 to 24, T2). Latent profile models and a latent transition model were estimated. Participants were classified into either a moderate trust (21% at T1; 45% transition into high at T2) or a high trust (79% at T1; 88% remained in the high group) group in the latent profile. A latent transition from moderate to high trust was observed in locked-down regions and among those with higher social support. Social support moderated the transition from low to high trust. The current study showed that the epidemic outbreak and lockdown experience in China were associated with increased PTP; furthermore, public trust can be restored during a public health emergency. Attention should be paid to assure that social support and risk management strategies maintain PTP.

Stress psychology is an interesting and important interdisciplinary research field. In this perspective article, we briefly discuss 10 challenges related to the conceptual definition, research methodology, and translation in the field of stress that do not receive sufficient attention or are ignored entirely. Future research should attempt to integrate a comprehensive stress conceptual framework into a multidimensional comprehensive stress model, incorporating subjective and objective indicators as comprehensive measures. The popularity of machine learning, cognitive neuroscience, and gene epigenetics is a promising approach that brings innovation to the field of stress psychology. The development of wearable devices that precisely record physiological signals to assess stress responses in naturalistic situations, standardize real‐life stressors, and measure baselines presents challenges to address in the future. Conducting large individualized and digital intervention studies could be crucial steps in enhancing the translation of research.

Background Stressful events and meaning-making toward them play an important role in adolescents’ life and growth. However, ignoring positive stressful events leads to negativity bias; further, the neural mechanisms of meaning-making are unclear. We aimed to verify the mediating role of meaning-making in stressful events and stress-related growth and the function of the default mode network (DMN) during meaning-making in this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. Methods Participants comprised 59 university students. Stressful life events, meaning-making, and stress-related growth were assessed at baseline, followed by fMRI scanning during a meaning-making task aroused by mental simulation. General linear modeling and psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses were used to explore the activation and functional connectivity of DMN during meaning-making. Results Mental simulation triggered meaning-making, and DMN activity decreased during meaning-making. Activation of the DMN was negatively correlated with coping flexibility, an indicator of stress-related growth. PPI analysis showed that meaning-making was accompanied by diminished connectivity in the DMN. DMN activation during meaning-making can mediate the relationship between positive stressful events and coping flexibility. Conclusions Decreased DMN activity and diminished functional connectivity in the DMN occurred during meaning-making. Activation of the DMN during meaning-making could mediate the relationship between positive stressful events and stress-related growth, which provides a cognitive neural basis for the mediating role of meaning-making in the relationship between stressful events and indicators of stress-related growth. Implications This study supports the idea that prosperity makes heroes, expands the meaning-making model, and suggests the inclusion of enhancing personal resources and meaning-making in education. This study was the first to validate the activation pattern and functional connectivity of the DMN during meaning-making aroused by mental simulation using an fMRI task-state examination, which can enhance our sense of meaning and provide knowledge that can be used in clinical psychology interventions. Trial Registration The study protocol was pre-registered in Open Science Framework (see osf.io/ahm6e for details).