Racial and ethnic differences in perseverative cognition at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic

Williams, DeWayne P.; Jones, Nickolas M.; Holman, E. Alison

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115105

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Race/ethnicity were assessed by asking participants to select all options that may apply: American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, Black or African-American, Hispanic or Latin, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, White, and Other. Responses were coded as White only (+1) or non-White (−1; Williams et al, 2022 , suggest White/non-White differences in COVID-19 concerns). Educational attainment was measured on a 9-point scale: No formal education, incomplete primary school, completed primary school, incomplete secondary school, completed secondary school, incomplete college (no degree), completed college (obtained degree), incomplete graduate/professional school (no degree), or completed graduate/professional school (obtained degree).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prosociality and health: Identification with all humanity is a replicable predictor of prosocial motivation for health behaviors

Barragan

Meltzoff

2023

Front. Psychol.

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The acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic may have passed, but the pandemic remains a major worldwide health concern that demands continued vigilance. Are there individual differences that predict the motivation to continue to wear masks and to create physical distance in public? Previous research conducted early in the pandemic had suggested that a particular social identity—identification with all humanity—is one underlying factor that contributes to people’s cooperation with health behavior guidelines. This highlights that the pandemic is not only an issue to be tackled with the tools of immunology and epidemiology. It also requires the tools from psychology—to measure the representations people have about themselves and others and how these representations drive values and decisions related to health. Here we report work on U.S. respondents that examined whether individuals’ level of identification with all humanity predicts their prosocial health behaviors aimed at mitigating the spread of COVID-19. In 3 convergent studies (total N = 1,580), we find that identification with all humanity predicted the prosocial motivation to wear masks and to engage in physical distancing when in public without a mask. The results were obtained while controlling for a host of covariates, including demographics, educational attainment, and Big Five personality dimensions. We find that some people have a marked drive to care for the health of strangers, which is significantly linked to their concern for all humanity rather than being restricted to their care for their community or country. Discussion focuses on this social identification with humanity and its enduring, replicable role in predicting the motivation to engage in prosocial health behaviors. We note key implications for theories in social and developmental psychology as well as for research that may lead to practical applications for lessening the human toll of the current and future pandemics.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prosociality and health: Identification with all humanity is a replicable predictor of prosocial motivation for health behaviors

Barragan

Meltzoff

2023

Front. Psychol.

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“…Similarly, two recent reviews reported that Black and Hispanic individuals experienced higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and COVID-19-related mortality compared to their White peers (Mackey et al, 2021;Mude et al, 2021) and another study found that more racially segregated U.S. counties had higher infection and mortality rates than more integrated counties (Torrats-Espinosa, 2021). Along with racial discrimination and segregation, higher rates of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality among people of color could be due to greater perseveration regarding finances and contracting (and dying from) the virus (Williams et al, 2022). Although further evidence is needed, early evidence shows that, as with other viral infections, susceptibility to and severity of COVID-19 is associated with psychosocial factors.…”

Section: Evidence Associating Psychosocial Factors With Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Prepandemic estimates placed the worldwide prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorders at 3.6% and 4.4% respectively (World Health Organization, 2017). Although not a perfect comparison, multiple systematic reviews conducted during the pandemic indicated substantial rises in psychological health concerns with estimates suggesting between 14–48% of adults worldwide experienced depressive symptoms, 6–51% experienced anxiety, and 14–50% experienced distress (Chekole & Abate, 2021; Necho et al, 2021; Xiong et al, 2020), with similar increases observed among children (Samji et al, 2022).…”

Section: Psychosocial Factors and Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychology Meets Biology in COVID-19: What We Know and Why It Matters for Public Health

Jones

Ayling

Wiley

et al. 2023

Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences

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Psychosocial factors are related to immune, viral, and vaccination outcomes. Yet, this knowledge has been poorly represented in public health initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic. This review provides an overview of biopsychosocial links relevant to COVID-19 outcomes by describing seminal evidence about these associations known prepandemic as well as contemporary research conducted during the pandemic. This focuses on the negative impact of the pandemic on psychosocial health and how this in turn has likely consequences for critically relevant viral and vaccination outcomes. We end by looking forward, highlighting the potential of psychosocial interventions that could be leveraged to support all people in navigating a postpandemic world and how a biopsychosocial approach to health could be incorporated into public health responses to future pandemics.

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“…Williams et al 2022). Items were derived from prior work(Holman et al 2008; Sweeting et al 2020;Williams et al 2022). Worry regarding climate change.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reliability was excellent α = .90. Items were derived from prior research(Holman et al 2008; Sweeting et al 2020;Williams et al 2022).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotions, Worry, Efficacy, and Climate Change Mitigation Behaviors among a Representative Sample of Texas and Florida Residents

Garfin,

Zernick,

Wong-Parodi

2023

Preprint

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Individual (e.g., eating less meat, electric car use) and collective (e.g., petition signing, donating money to environmental causes) climate change mitigation behaviors are necessary to thwart the worst effects of the escalating climate crisis. Psychological factors including positive and negative emotional states, worry, and efficacy have been implicated as key correlates of these behaviors; however, little research has explored these relationships in representative samples at high risk for exposure to climate-related hazards (e.g., hurricanes, heat waves, flooding). We assessed climate-change mitigation behaviors in an ongoing study of a probability-based representative sample of 1,479 Texas and Florida residents repeatedly exposed to climate-related hazards including hurricanes, heat waves, flooding, and tornadoes. Controlling for demographics, behavior-related positive emotions (PA) and negative emotions (NA) correlated with engagement in performing greater number of collective (PA: IRR = 2.06, p < .001; NA: IRR = 1.46, p = .030) climate-change mitigation behaviors; individual-level behaviors were associated with PA (IRR = 1.18, p < .001). However, NA was fully mediated by worry about climate-related hazards, which in turn was mediated by worry about climate change specifically. PA was fully mediated by efficacy. In fully adjusted models examining individual emotions, hope, worry about climate change, and behavioral efficacy remained statistically significant predictors of performing greater individual and collective climate-change mitigation behaviors (all ps < .05). Results suggest worry about the climate crisis may be adaptive and that feelings of hope, relative to other emotions (both positive and negative), may be effective at spurring pro-environmental behaviors. Scalable interventions should explore leveraging these psychological experiences to promote climate-change mitigation behaviors.

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Racial and ethnic differences in perseverative cognition at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic

Cited by 8 publications

References 41 publications

Prosociality and health: Identification with all humanity is a replicable predictor of prosocial motivation for health behaviors

Prosociality and health: Identification with all humanity is a replicable predictor of prosocial motivation for health behaviors

Psychology Meets Biology in COVID-19: What We Know and Why It Matters for Public Health

Emotions, Worry, Efficacy, and Climate Change Mitigation Behaviors among a Representative Sample of Texas and Florida Residents

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