Predictors of Adolescent Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cognitive Reappraisal and Humor

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to slow the spread of disease have particularly affected the lives of adolescents. Many studies have recently identified the risks to adolescent mental health posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, yet few have identified the markers of resilience to the events and concerns associated with the pandemic's lived experience. This study examined the moderating role of psychosocial resources in the association between the tangible and emotional experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic and symptoms of common psychiatric problems during adolescence (depression, anxiety, proactive and reactive aggression, and sleep problems). Methods: Participants were adolescents in the United States who were oversampled for early life adversity before the COVID-19 pandemic. The psychosocial resources assessed were humor styles, emotion regulation, social support, optimism, and purpose in life, which have previously been identified as protective in the acute aftermath of stressful events. Results: Greater COVID-19 impact was associated with more anxiety, depressive symptoms, sleep disturbance, and proactive aggression. COVID-19 impact and psychiatric symptoms were unrelated among youth reporting high self-enhancing humor and cognitive reappraisal. Conclusions: Adolescents high in humor and cognitive reappraisal may be protected against the mental health correlates of the COVID-19 pandemic and other prolonged stressors. Importantly, these factors are known to be modifiable through behavioral interventions. Attention to their effectiveness in prevention and intervention studies is needed as the pandemic continues to exert its impact on individuals and society.

Stress-related psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Similar to patterns observed in the context of community-level disasters, growing evidence demonstrates that those exposed to a greater number of pandemic-related stressors are at particularly elevated risk for the onset of mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Cohodes, McCauley, & Gee, 2021 ; Kuhlman, Straka, Mousavi, Tran, & Rodgers, 2021 ; Kujawa, Green, Compas, Dickey, & Pegg, 2020 ). Several longitudinal studies have demonstrated associations between the degree of exposure to pandemic-related stressors and increases in symptoms of psychopathology during the pandemic, controlling for pre-pandemic symptom levels, in children, adolescents, and adults in a variety of cultural contexts ( Hawes, Szenczy, Klein, Hajcak, & Nelson, 2021 ; Pereira et al, 2021 ; Rosen et al, 2021 ; Weissman et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Emerging evidence also suggests that the link between pandemic-related stress and psychopathology is weaker in adolescents and adults who engage in high levels of cognitive reappraisal. Specifically, use of cognitive reappraisal moderated the association between perceived stress and symptoms of anxiety among adults during the early phase of the pandemic ( Xu et al, 2020 ) and between exposure to pandemic-related stressors and symptoms of depression and anxiety in adolescents ( Kuhlman et al, 2021 ). One study of healthcare workers additionally reported a positive influence of cognitive reappraisal on levels of emotional exhaustion ( Wang et al, 2021 ).…”

Conceptualizing Emotion Regulation and Coregulation as Family-Level Phenomena

“…Naturalistic observations, for example, have found that caregivers’ expressions of their own positive emotion, physical touch, and engagement sustained school-aged children’s expression of positive emotion (Bai et al, 2016 ). There is also an emerging focus on the link between humor and emotion regulation in both adults (Braniecka et al, 2019 ; Horn et al, 2019 ; Wu et al, 2021 ) and children and adolescents (Kuhlman et al, 2021 ; Mireault et al, 2015 ). A recent study found that infants aged five to seven months smiled more frequently, longer, and more quickly in response to an absurd event when caregivers provided cues that the event was humorous than when they provided neutral cues, suggesting caregivers can begin shaping their children’s understanding of humor very early on (Mireault et al, 2015 ).…”

“…In another study, caregivers’ use of humor was associated with greater competence in emotion regulation among five- and six-year-old children, with parenting warmth mediating the relationship between maternal humor and children’s emotion regulation (Oh & Hwang, 2018 ). In a study of adolescents, self-reported use of humor appeared to have a protective effect against the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychiatric symptoms (Kulman et al, 2021 ). In line with a strengths-based perspective, promoting caregivers’ use of coregulation strategies that also attend to positive emotions, including those that arise from humorous experiences, may not only benefit children’s individual development, but may also enhance the quality of interactions within various family subsystems.…”

Adolescent sleep – lessons from COVID-19

“…A more hopeful note for some was struck towards the end, when it was suggested that young people with night owl chronotypes might benefit, and that all might benefit from reduced travelling times. Kuhlman et al, (2021) explored the impact of the pandemic on sleep disturbance as part of a wider study into predictors of adolescent resilience during COVID-19. The study found that teenagers who had high levels of both affiliative and self-effacing humour (using the Humour Styles questionnaire) had a moderated impact of the pandemic on their sleep.…”