National Defense University, Washington, DC, USA; Dept. of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Multi-Health Systems, Toronto, Canada.
J Affect Disord. 2022 Nov 15;317:236-244. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.08.045. Epub 2022 Aug 24.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to sharp increases in mental health problems around the world, most notably in anxiety and depression. The present study examines hardiness and age as potential protective factors against the mental health effects of COVID-related stress. A sample of Canadians balanced across age and gender, completed an online survey including measures of COVID related stressors, hardiness, depression, and anxiety, along with age, gender, and other demographics. Conditional PROCESS analysis showed that COVID stressors led to significant increases in anxiety and depression. Hardiness moderated these relations, with those high in hardiness showing less anxiety and depression. Age was negatively related to anxiety and depression, with highest levels observed among the younger respondents. At the same time, a moderating effect of age was found with respect to depression, with older people showing sharper increases in depression as COVID-related stress goes up. Gender was not a significant factor in any of these relations, meaning that the results apply equally well to both women and men. This study provides evidence that younger people who are also low in hardiness are most vulnerable to developing anxiety and depression while under COVID stress, and so would likely benefit from preventive intervention strategies. While anxiety and depression symptoms are highest among the young, older age groups appear more vulnerable to increasing rates of depression symptoms related to COVID stress. Clinicians and practitioners should thus be especially vigilant for COVID related increases in depression among older people, and those low in psychological hardiness.
新冠疫情大流行导致全球范围内的心理健康问题急剧增加，尤其是焦虑和抑郁。本研究探讨了坚韧和年龄作为预防与 COVID 相关压力的心理健康影响的潜在保护因素。本研究的样本是加拿大的成年人，年龄和性别均衡，完成了一项在线调查，包括 COVID 相关压力源、坚韧、抑郁和焦虑的测量，以及年龄、性别和其他人口统计学信息。条件 PROCESS 分析表明，COVID 压力源导致焦虑和抑郁显著增加。坚韧度调节了这些关系，坚韧度高的人焦虑和抑郁程度较低。年龄与焦虑和抑郁呈负相关，在年轻的受访者中观察到最高水平。同时，还发现了年龄对抑郁的调节作用，随着 COVID 相关压力的增加，年龄较大的人抑郁程度的增加更为明显。性别在这些关系中都不是一个重要因素，这意味着这些结果同样适用于女性和男性。本研究提供了证据表明，在 COVID 压力下，年轻且坚韧程度较低的人最容易出现焦虑和抑郁，因此可能受益于预防干预策略。虽然焦虑和抑郁症状在年轻人中最高，但年龄较大的人群似乎更容易受到与 COVID 相关的抑郁症状的增加的影响。因此，临床医生和从业者应该特别警惕老年人中与 COVID 相关的抑郁症状增加，以及那些心理坚韧度较低的人。
