Lampraki Charikleia, Jopp Daniela S, Roquet Angélique, Hoffman Adar, Uittenhove Kim
Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Chemin de Pinchat 22, Carouge, Geneva, 1227, Switzerland.
Swiss Centre of Expertise in Life Course Research LIVES, Lausanne, Switzerland.
BMC Psychol. 2025 Mar 14;13(1):250. doi: 10.1186/s40359-025-02406-8.
Confronted with stressful circumstances, individuals use coping strategies to adapt. During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals were threatened by an unprecedented health crisis, which governments tried to navigate with various imposed measures. Social distancing had massive negative consequences for mental health; yet studies also documented important interindividual differences, which may be related to differences in coping strategies. This study aims at identifying the most frequent coping responses, their change over time, as well as their possible role for adapting to the crisis.
Our sample consisted of 732 individuals living in Switzerland (age range 18-81 years). An online three-wave questionnaire was administered during the second pandemic wave (i.e., October, November, and December 2020). We used bivariate latent growth modeling and multilevel modeling in order to investigate the development of depressive symptoms and the extent to which it related to the level and change in coping strategies, adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics.
Bivariate latent growth models showed that feeling depressed was related to lower use of seeking functional and emotional support, positive reappraisal and acceptance, and higher use of self-distracting. Moreover, results indicated that more change in depressive symptoms was related to less change in seeking functional support and positive reappraisal, and to more change in self-distracting. Regarding multilevel modeling, where all coping strategies were simultaneously included as predictors of depressive symptoms, a higher level of support seeking and positive reappraisal, and a lower level of self-distracting were related to fewer depressive symptoms. Over time, seeking support, positive reappraisal, acceptance, and self-distracting decreased, while depressive symptoms increased. Decreasing the use of positive reappraisal and increasing the use of self-distracting were related to increasing depressive symptoms. Younger aged individuals experienced significantly more depressive symptoms than their older age counterparts when they decreased the use of positive reappraisal.
In conclusion, individuals used various coping strategies to adapt to the COVID-19-related life circumstances, but only some of them related to changes in depressing symptoms, possibly demonstrating a gap between the availability and use of coping strategies during the pandemic and their actual effect on mental health.
面对压力环境时，个体会采用应对策略来适应。在新冠疫情期间，个体受到前所未有的健康危机威胁，政府试图通过各种强制措施来应对。社交距离对心理健康产生了巨大的负面影响；然而，研究也记录了个体之间的重要差异，这可能与应对策略的差异有关。本研究旨在确定最常见的应对反应、它们随时间的变化，以及它们在适应危机中的可能作用。
我们的样本包括732名居住在瑞士的个体（年龄范围为18 - 81岁）。在疫情第二波期间（即2020年10月、11月和12月）进行了一项在线三波问卷调查。我们使用双变量潜在增长模型和多层次模型来研究抑郁症状的发展及其与应对策略水平和变化的关系，并对社会人口学特征进行了调整。
双变量潜在增长模型显示，感到抑郁与较少使用寻求功能和情感支持、积极重新评价和接受，以及较多使用自我分心有关。此外，结果表明，抑郁症状变化越大，与寻求功能支持和积极重新评价的变化越少，以及自我分心的变化越多有关。在多层次模型中，所有应对策略同时作为抑郁症状的预测因素，较高水平的寻求支持和积极重新评价，以及较低水平的自我分心与较少的抑郁症状有关。随着时间的推移，寻求支持、积极重新评价、接受和自我分心减少，而抑郁症状增加。积极重新评价的使用减少和自我分心的使用增加与抑郁症状增加有关。当年轻个体减少积极重新评价的使用时，他们比年长个体经历了明显更多的抑郁症状。
总之，个体采用各种应对策略来适应与新冠疫情相关的生活环境，但其中只有一些与抑郁症状的变化有关，这可能表明在疫情期间应对策略的可用性和使用与它们对心理健康的实际影响之间存在差距。
