Social Isolation-Mediated Exacerbation of Negative Affect in Young Drinkers during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Gopi K Neppala,Lauren Lepow,David Kimhy,Adriana Feder,Muhammad A Parvaz,Riaz B Shaik,Robert H Pietrzak,Rachel Freed,Ariella Wagner,Eva Velthorst,Isabel Terkuhle,Iliyan Ivanov

doi:10.3390/brainsci12020214

Abstract

Emerging research on psychological adjustment during the COVID-19 outbreak has suggested that young people may be particularly vulnerable to increases in negative affect during the pandemic. However, the association between alcohol use in youth and change in negative affect during this unprecedented time is not clear. Using an online survey, this study obtained scores on negative affect (before and during the COVID-19 pandemic), pandemic-related stress, change in drinking frequency, and traits including resilience, impulsivity and anhedonia, from a sample of drinkers and non-drinkers, up to the age of 21. Young drinkers experienced a greater increase in negative affect during the pandemic compared to non-drinkers, and this differential rise in negative affect was mediated by the pandemic-related stress of social isolation. Young drinkers also experienced a decrease in alcohol use during the pandemic, but this was not associated with a change in negative affect. Interestingly, young drinkers with greater resilience and lower anhedonia reported less increase in negative affect during the COVID-19 pandemic. Taken together, these results show that the greater increase in negative affect that young drinkers experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to their non-drinking counterparts, was mediated by pandemic-related social isolation. Moreover, greater resilience and lower anhedonia may have served as protective factors for mitigating the social isolation-induced worsening of negative affect in young drinkers during the pandemic. These findings may inform future studies investigating potential indicators of maladaptive affective responses to public health crises in vulnerable adolescent populations.

Highlights

From the Coronavirus Health Impact Survey (CRISIS) survey, we identified the following three questions that measured social isolationrelated stress: “How stressful were the restrictions on leaving home for you?”, “How stressful were the changes in social contacts for you?” and “How stressful were the changes in family contacts for you?”
We tested youths that consumed alcohol regularly prior to the COVID-19 pandemic were more whether youths that consumed alcohol regularly prior to the COVID-19 pandemic were vulnerable to increases in negative affect, whether this relationship was mediated by more vulnerable to increases in negative affect, whether this relationship was mediated the pandemic-related stress of social isolation, and whether factors such as resilience, by the pandemic-related stress of social isolation, and whether factors such as resilience, impulsivity and anhedonia are associated with stress-induced changes in negative affect in impulsivity and anhedonia are associated with stress-induced changes in negative affect young drinkers
In this study we showed that young drinkers experienced a greater increase in negative affect during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to non-drinkers that was mediated by the pandemic-related stress of social isolation

Summary

Introduction

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the first responses to contain and reduce the exponentially growing infection and death rates was to implement a lockdown, with severely limited in-person social exposure. Recently have studies on the mental health impacts of pandemic-related social isolation among young people started to emerge [1]. Social isolation has been shown to exacerbate pre-existing anxiety and depression, which are both highly comorbid, with harmful drinking in emerging adulthood [2,3]. Studies have begun to point to the detrimental effects of COVID-19 on mental health, including increased symptoms associated with depression, perceived stress, and alcohol use [4]. The impact of pandemic-related social isolation on the mental health of young drinkers, who typically procure alcohol through their social contacts [5], is currently not known

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