Mousavi Behnam, Moore Jessy, Patte Karen A, Pickett William, O'Leary Deborah D, Wade Terrance J
Department of Health Sciences, Brock University, St Catharines, ON, Canada.
Front Public Health. 2025 Jul 9;13:1546409. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1546409. eCollection 2025.
Higher exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) has been shown to worsen the effect of COVID-19 stress on mental health problems in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic among young adults. This study extends that research by examining depression, anxiety, hostility, and perceived stress trajectories across successive phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in a prospective, multi-wave panel study using data collected pre-COVID-19 pandemic onset, Early pandemic, Peak pandemic, and Post-Peak pandemic.
The baseline data come from the Niagara Longitudinal Heart Study (NLHS) and the three COVID-19 waves come from a sub-study of the NLHS examining the specific impact of the pandemic. Using a Bayesian multivariate mixed-model regression framework, 171 participants who responded to at least one wave of the COVID-19 sub-study were included.
Participants with higher ACE scores and high COVID-19 stress had elevated trajectories of several poor mental health measures that stayed higher than other groups across all waves of data collection.
Young adults who reported higher ACEs were more susceptible to subsequent stress exposure, highlighting a specific, high-risk group who may benefit from targeted intervention programs during times of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
在新冠疫情大流行初期，研究表明，更多地暴露于童年不良经历（ACEs）会使新冠疫情压力对年轻人心理健康问题的影响恶化。本研究通过一项前瞻性多波面板研究，利用在新冠疫情大流行开始前、疫情早期、疫情高峰期和疫情高峰期过后收集的数据，考察新冠疫情大流行连续阶段的抑郁、焦虑、敌意和感知压力轨迹，扩展了该研究。
基线数据来自尼亚加拉纵向心脏研究（NLHS），三次新冠疫情波的数据来自NLHS的一项子研究，该子研究考察了疫情的具体影响。采用贝叶斯多变量混合模型回归框架，纳入了至少对新冠疫情子研究的一波做出回应的171名参与者。
ACE得分较高且新冠疫情压力较大的参与者，在几项不良心理健康指标上的轨迹有所上升，在所有数据收集波次中均高于其他组。
报告ACEs较高的年轻人更容易受到后续压力暴露的影响，这凸显了一个特定的高风险群体，他们可能会从新冠疫情等危机时期的针对性干预项目中受益。
