Institute for Sustainability Psychology, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Lueneburg, Lower Saxony, Germany.
PLoS One. 2024 May 8;19(5):e0302065. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302065. eCollection 2024.
Although research has confirmed that the first COVID-19-related lockdown has increased stress and mental health problems in children, less is known about the longer-term effects of the pandemic on children's COVID-related future anxiety (CRFA). Because of CRFA's potentially debilitating effects, risk and resilience factors against this anxiety were investigated. To this end, n = 140 children (49% female) in 3rd and 4th grade classrooms in Germany were asked to perform a working memory task and to self-report about their CRFA and emotion regulation in December 2020 and in May 2021. More maladaptive emotion regulation in December 2020 contributed to the explanation of a high CRFA score in May 2021, whereas a better performance on working memory updating contributed a lower CRFA score later when controls were in place. These results were confirmed when children's CRFA in December 2020 was included in the prediction of their later CRFA. They suggest that maladaptive strategies of emotion regulation, such as rumination, may explain higher or increasing levels of CRFA, whereas efficient working memory updating may be an indicator of processing information in a way which shields children from CRFA-related thoughts. The concepts underlying these variables should be included in prevention and intervention efforts.
尽管研究已经证实，与新冠病毒相关的首次封锁增加了儿童的压力和心理健康问题，但对于大流行对儿童与新冠病毒相关的未来焦虑（CRFA）的长期影响知之甚少。由于 CRFA 可能具有使人衰弱的影响，因此研究了针对这种焦虑的风险和恢复力因素。为此，德国 3 年级和 4 年级教室的 140 名儿童（49%为女性）被要求在 2020 年 12 月和 2021 年 5 月执行一项工作记忆任务，并自我报告他们的 CRFA 和情绪调节情况。2020 年 12 月更适应不良的情绪调节有助于解释 2021 年 5 月的高 CRFA 评分，而在控制条件下，工作记忆更新表现更好则预示着以后的 CRFA 评分较低。当将儿童在 2020 年 12 月的 CRFA 纳入对以后 CRFA 的预测时，得到了相同的结果。这些结果表明，情绪调节的适应不良策略，如沉思，可能解释了更高或不断增加的 CRFA 水平，而有效的工作记忆更新可能是一种以保护儿童免受与 CRFA 相关的想法影响的方式处理信息的指标。应将这些变量背后的概念纳入预防和干预工作中。
