A longitudinal assessment of depression and anxiety in the Republic of Ireland before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Across the COVID-19 Waves; Assessing Temporal Fluctuations in Perceived Stress, Post-Traumatic Symptoms, Worry, Anxiety and Civic Moral Disengagement over One Year of Pandemic

“…Such findings could therefore be a manifestation of a constant sense of uncertainty of the future due to the course of the pandemic, which had progressive peaks in the number of infections across the year [ 29 ], as well as to the further consequences and challenges at different levels that could ensue [ 42 , 43 , 44 ]. Furthermore, these results integrate the preliminary longitudinal study of Hyland and colleagues [ 17 ], which found no change in the prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder across during six weeks of lockdown (from 31 March–5 April, to 30 April–14 May 2020) in adults in the Republic of Ireland.…”

“…One year after the outbreak, with the in-place vaccination campaign, maintenance of preventive measures, and alternation of localized closure phases, it could be important to monitor the progress of the psychological effects of the health emergency in order to promote adequate and targeted implementation of supportive and therapeutic interventions [ 15 ]. To the authors’ knowledge, some longitudinal studies have already analyzed the consequences for mental health due to the COVID-19 pandemic but covering only the first weeks or months of the outbreak (e.g., the ones of Okruszek and colleagues [ 16 ], Hyland and colleagues [ 17 ], Pierce and colleagues [ 18 ], and Wang and colleagues [ 19 ]). At the time of writing, there is still a lack of research showing trajectories of psychological dimensions in the general population across longer periods.…”

Physical Activity, Mental Health and Wellbeing of Irish Adolescents during Covid-19 Restrictions. A Re-Issue of the Physical Activity and Wellbeing Study (PAWS)

“…Increased symptoms of depression are consistent with longitudinal findings from the wider population during Covid-19 restrictions (Hyland et al, 2021). Adolescents and younger adults were identified as the most likely to report higher symptoms of depression during restrictions (Hyland et al, 2021; as higher levels of loneliness (McHugh et al, 2020) and lower levels of resilience (Shapero et al, 2019) identified as key risk factors (Hyland et al, 2021). Notably, individuals living in urban settings were less likely to develop increased symptoms of depression in a longitudinal study (Hyland et al, 2021) which suggests increased opportunities for social interaction may protect against symptoms of depression and could be one of the main factors also present through engagement in team sport.…”

“…Lowest symptoms of depression were reported by both 1 st year males and females. Increased symptoms of depression are consistent with longitudinal findings from the wider population during Covid-19 restrictions (Hyland et al, 2021). Adolescents and younger adults were identified as the most likely to report higher symptoms of depression during restrictions (Hyland et al, 2021; as higher levels of loneliness (McHugh et al, 2020) and lower levels of resilience (Shapero et al, 2019) identified as key risk factors (Hyland et al, 2021).…”

Refuting the myth of a ‘tsunami’ of mental ill-health in populations affected by COVID-19: evidence that response to the pandemic is heterogeneous, not homogeneous

“…Third, we aimed to identify which demographic, social, economic and psychological factors were associated with the different longitudinal profiles. These variables were chosen as they had been previously found to be related to pandemic-related psychopathology (Hyland et al, 2021;Shevlin et al, 2020) or had been considered and pre-registered as theoretically important (McBride et al, 2020a(McBride et al, , 2020b. We predicted that trajectories reflecting poor or worsening mental health status will be associated with demographic variables (female gender, younger age, non-white ethnicity, lower income, living in a single adult household, living with dependent children, pre-existing mental health difficulties, living in an urban area), COVID-19-specific variables (lost income as a result of the pandemic, individual and family member chronic health condition, high perceived risk of being infected in the next month, individual or family member having been infected, individual or family member pregnancy) and psychological variables (higher levels of loneliness, death anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty , lower levels of resilience and an external locus of control).…”