Coping with COVID: Use, factor structure, and health behavior implications of specific emotion regulation strategies during the coronavirus pandemic

Abstract

AbstractThis series of studies examined U.S. individuals' use of specific emotion regulation/coping strategies during the early months of the COVID‐19 pandemic, investigated the factor structure among strategies during this universally experienced stressor, and the extent to which these factors predicted engagement in COVID‐related health‐promoting behaviors. In Study 1, participants (N = 520) rated their use of 17 strategies for coping with pandemic‐related stress during the past 24 h. Differences emerged in strategy use across demographic groups (age, race, income). Results of exploratory factor analysis suggest a factor structure grouping strategies in terms of goals beyond emotion regulation per se, rather than phases of the emotion process or a binary adaptive versus maladaptive distinction. In Study 2 (N = 264), participants reported daily on their coping strategy use and weekly on their engagement in COVID‐specific health behaviors for 22 days. Results of confirmatory factor analysis replicate the factor structure found in Study 1. Some significant associations of coping strategy use with health‐promoting behaviors were observed, but these were sporadic and largely involved baseline measures rather than predicting change over time. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.