Abstract
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is posing a global public health burden. These consequences have been shown to increase the risk of mental distress, but the underlying protective and risk factors for mental distress and trends over different waves of the pandemic are largely unknown. Furthermore, it is largely unknown how mental distress is associated with individual protective behavior. Three quota samples, weighted to represent the population forming the German COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring study (24 March and 26 May 2020, and 9 March 2021 with >900 subjects each), were used to describe the course of mental distress and resilience, to identify risk and protective factors during the pandemic, and to investigate their associations with individual protective behaviors. Mental distress increased slightly during the pandemic. Usage of cognitive reappraisal strategies, maintenance of a daily structure, and usage of alternative social interactions decreased. Self-reported resilience, cognitive reappraisal strategies, and maintaining a daily structure were the most important protective factors in all three samples. Adherence to individual protective behaviors (e.g., physical distancing) was negatively associated with mental distress and positively associated with frequency of information intake, maintenance of a daily structure, and cognitive reappraisal. Maintaining a daily structure, training of cognitive reappraisal strategies, and information provision may be targets to prevent mental distress while assuring a high degree of individual protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Effects of the respective interventions have to be confirmed in further studies.
Highlights
The virus SARS-CoV-2, causing COVID-19, a disease first described in China in late2019, has led to a worldwide pandemic with currently over 173 million confirmed cases and over 3.7 million deaths (8 June 2021; [1])
Our results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic may impact the general population in the form of increased mental distress, which was sustained or even increased between March 2020 and March 2021
We cautiously conclude that the maintenance of everyday structures, the training of cognitive coping strategies, and other interventions to foster resilience may be important components to inform the development of appropriate intervention strategies to tackle mental distress during the ongoing pandemic
Summary
The virus SARS-CoV-2, causing COVID-19, a disease first described in China in late2019, has led to a worldwide pandemic with currently over 173 million confirmed cases and over 3.7 million deaths (8 June 2021; [1]). To control the spread of the disease, many countries have put restrictions in place that heavily impacted their economies as well as everyday life These restrictions combined with the pandemic itself have led to increased mental distress caused by, among other things, fear of job loss, fear of losing loved ones, financial problems, social isolation, closed educational institutions, and restricted access to healthcare services [2,3,4,5,6]. Kunzler and colleagues [9] compared mental distress during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the general population (50 international studies) with pre-pandemic data and found evidence for an increase in symptoms of anxiety (d = 0.40) and depression (d = 0.67), but not in other mental health outcomes (e.g., stress).
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