Department of Sociology, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, United States of America.
Department of Social Welfare, Kongju National University, Gongju, South Korea.
PLoS One. 2022 May 3;17(5):e0267948. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267948. eCollection 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic and related physical distancing measures have posed a significant threat to the mental health of adults, particularly those living alone. Accordingly, the World Health Organization implemented the #HealthyAtHome program, encouraging people to keep in regular contact with loved ones, stay physically active, and keep a regular routine. The current study aims to examine a micro-longitudinal link between behavioral activation coping strategies (exercise, meditation, relaxation, and social connection) and depressive symptoms among adults who lived alone during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used 21 biweekly waves of longitudinal data from the Understanding America Study (UAS) collected between April 2020 and February 2021 (N = 1,280). The multilevel models with correlated random effects were estimated to examine lagged effects of coping strategies (t-1) on depressive symptoms (t). The results showed that exercise was predictive of lower depressive symptoms even after controlling for time-invariant and time-varying covariates. The results showed that modifiable lifestyle factors, such as taking time to exercise, may be beneficial for the mental health of Americans living in single-person households.
新冠疫情和相关的社交隔离措施对成年人的心理健康构成了重大威胁，尤其是那些独居的成年人。因此，世界卫生组织实施了#居家健康#计划，鼓励人们与亲人保持定期联系、保持身体活跃和保持规律的生活。本研究旨在检验在新冠疫情期间独居成年人中，行为激活应对策略（运动、冥想、放松和社交联系）与抑郁症状之间的微观纵向联系。我们使用了 2020 年 4 月至 2021 年 2 月期间从理解美国研究（UAS）收集的 21 个双周纵向数据波（N=1280）。使用具有相关随机效应的多层次模型来检验应对策略（t-1）对抑郁症状（t）的滞后效应。结果表明，即使在控制了时间不变和时变协变量后，运动也能预测较低的抑郁症状。研究结果表明，可改变的生活方式因素，如花时间运动，可能对居住在单人家庭中的美国人的心理健康有益。
