Dynamic interplay among emotional support, social interaction, COVID-19 news exposure and anxiety symptoms in emerging adults during the early COVID-19 pandemic

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ABSTRACT Background Anxiety was prevalent among emerging adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Conservation of Resources Theory, our goal was to investigate the relations among emotional support, social interaction, COVID-19 news exposure and anxiety symptoms in emerging adults during the early COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Using the COVID-Dynamic dataset, we analyzed data from the first three waves (April 4–18, 2020), resulting in a total of 569 valid participants aged 18–29, with 46.2% identifying as female and a mean age of 23.88 years. The Gaussian Graphical Model was applied to estimate the network models. Results Contemporaneous network indicated that anxiety symptoms were related to emotional support, social interaction and COVID-19 news exposure. Temporal network revealed bidirectional relations between emotional support and anxiety, and between COVID-19 news exposure and anxiety. Several anxiety symptoms predicted social interaction one week later. Emotional support was a significant predictor of anxiety symptoms. “I feel nervous” had the highest strength value in the contemporaneous network. “I feel indecisive” had the highest in-strength centrality in the temporal network. Conclusions Findings partially support the COR theory and emphasize the need to reevaluate the role of emotional support in the theory.