Aging with trauma across the lifetime and experiencing trauma in old age: Vulnerability and resilience intertwined. In K. E. Cherry (Ed.), Traumatic stress and long-term recovery: Coping with disasters and other negative life events (pp. 293-308). Springer.

The rapid spread of the coronavirus and the strategies to slow it have disrupted just about every aspect of our lives. Such disruption may be reflected in changes in psychological function. The present study used a pre-posttest design to test whether Five Factor Model personality traits changed with the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Participants (N = 2,137) were tested in early February 2020 and again during the President's 15 Days to Slow the Spread guidelines. In contrast to the preregistered hypotheses, Neuroticism decreased across these six weeks, particularly the facets of Anxiety and Depression, and Conscientiousness did not change. Interestingly, there was some evidence that the rapid changes in the social context had changed the meaning of an item. Specifically, an item about going to work despite being sick was a good indicator of conscientiousness before COVID-19, but the interpretation of it changed with the pandemic. In sum, the unexpected small decline in Neuroticism suggests that, during the acute phase of the coronavirus outbreak, feelings of anxiety and distress may be attributed more to the pandemic than to one's personality.

The current study examined how changes in marital quality are associated with changes in sleep quality in older adults over an 8-year period. Older adults from the Health and Retirement Study completed measures of both marital support/strain and sleep quality in 2006, 2010, and 2014 (N = 4981). We used latent growth curve models to examine intraindividual change in support, strain, and sleep quality. Further, we examined interrelationships between changes in each of these three indicators. Results showed that higher marital quality was associated with better sleep at baseline. We also found that marital quality and sleep quality were coordinated over time-as marital quality increased, so did sleep quality. When this covariation was accounted, the prospective effects of baseline marital quality on changes in sleep quality were not found. The current study provided evidence for a long-term temporal coordination of marital quality and sleep quality in older adults.

The rapid spread of the coronavirus and the strategies to slow it have disrupted just about every aspect of our lives. Such disruption may be reflected in changes in psychological function. The present study used a pre-posttest design to test whether Five Factor Model personality traits changed with the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Participants (N=2,137) were tested in early February 2020 and again during the President’s 15 Days to Slow the Spread guidelines. In contrast to the preregistered hypotheses, Neuroticism decreased across these six weeks, particularly the facets of Anxiety and Depression, and Conscientiousness did not change. Exploratory analyses indicated that quarantine/isolation status moderated change such that Neuroticism only decreased for those not in quarantine, whereas Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness declined for participants in quarantine. The present research suggests modest changes in personality traits across the acute phase of the coronavirus outbreak.

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