Department of Psychology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA, United States of America.
Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
PLoS One. 2024 Sep 25;19(9):e0310734. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310734. eCollection 2024.
This longitudinal study examined a sample of adult Poles (N = 1245), who were interviewed three times from July 2021 to August 2022, during the later stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study had two primary objectives. The first was to assess the impact of the pandemic on psychological distress, measured through symptoms of depression and anxiety. The pandemic's effects were evaluated using three predictors: direct exposure to COVID-19, COVID-19 related stressors, and perceived threats from COVID-19. The second objective was to investigate the role of received social support in coping with the pandemic's hardships. Receipt of social support was measured by both the quantity of help received and the perceived quality of that support. A Latent Growth Curve Model (LGCM) was employed to analyze psychological distress across three waves, controlling for sociodemographic variables, non-COVID life events, coping self-efficacy, and perceived social support. Findings indicated that COVID-19 stressors and COVID-19 threats were strongly and consistently associated with greater psychological distress throughout the study period. The impact of direct COVID-19 exposure was limited. The quantity of received support predicted higher distress, whereas higher quality of received support was linked to better mental health. Crucially, the relationship between the quantity of support and distress was moderated by the quality of support. Effective social support was associated with the lowest distress levels, regardless of the amount of help received. Conversely, receiving large amounts of low-quality support was detrimental to psychological health. In summary, the ongoing psychosocial challenges of COVID-19 significantly eroded mental health, highlighting the importance of support quality over quantity in coping with significant life adversities.
本纵向研究调查了一组成年波兰人（N=1245）的样本，他们在 2021 年 7 月至 2022 年 8 月期间 COVID-19 大流行后期接受了三次访谈。该研究有两个主要目标。第一个目标是评估大流行对抑郁和焦虑症状等心理困扰的影响。使用三个预测指标评估大流行的影响：直接接触 COVID-19、与 COVID-19 相关的压力源以及对 COVID-19 的感知威胁。第二个目标是研究接受社会支持在应对大流行困难方面的作用。通过接受的社会支持的数量和感知支持的质量来衡量接受的社会支持。采用潜在增长曲线模型（LGCM）来分析三个波次的心理困扰，控制社会人口统计学变量、非 COVID-19 生活事件、应对自我效能感和感知社会支持。研究结果表明，在整个研究期间，COVID-19 压力源和 COVID-19 威胁与更大的心理困扰密切相关。直接接触 COVID-19 的影响是有限的。接受的支持数量预测了更高的困扰，而接受的支持质量与更好的心理健康相关。至关重要的是，支持数量和困扰之间的关系受到支持质量的调节。有效社会支持与最低困扰水平相关，无论接受的帮助量如何。相反，接受大量低质量的支持对心理健康有害。总的来说，COVID-19 的持续心理社会挑战严重削弱了心理健康，突出了在应对重大生活逆境时支持质量优于数量的重要性。
