Unique and interactive effects of emotion regulation difficulties and perceived stress on COVID-19 traumatic stress, anxiety, and safety behavior use: A four-year prospective study

• Published in: Behaviour research and therapy Vol. 176; p. 104503
• Main Authors: Jessup, Sarah C., Adamis, Alexandra M., Rast, Catherine E., Cox, Rebecca C., Olatunji, Bunmi O.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-05-2024
• Subjects: Anxiety; Coronavirus; Emotion regulation; Perceived stress; Traumatic stress; Anxiety; Coronavirus; Perceived stress; Emotion regulation; Traumatic stress
• ISSN: 0005-7967; 1873-622X; 1873-622X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2024.104503

Given that emotion regulation difficulties confer risk for poor responses to stress, they may predict who is at risk for adverse psychological reactions to major, chronic stressors such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Specific adverse reactions to the pandemic may include more severe traumatic stress, anxiety, and excessive safety behavior use (i.e., hand washing). While emotion regulation difficulties may be a diathesis for adverse reactions to chronic stressors, the context(s) by which they may confer elevated risk is unclear. Accordingly, the present longitudinal study examined the interaction between pre-pandemic emotion regulation difficulties and early pandemic perceived stress in predicting subsequent COVID-related traumatic stress, anxiety, and safety behavior use over 32 weeks of the pandemic. Community adults (N = 145) who completed a measure of emotion regulation in 2016 as part of a larger study were recontacted at the start of the pandemic (March 2020) and assessed every two weeks for 32 weeks. Consistent with a diathesis-stress model, the interaction between difficulties in emotion regulation and perceived stress was significant in predicting COVID-19 anxiety (p = 0.003, d = 0.52) such that at high, but not low, levels of perceived stress, difficulties in emotion regulation in 2016 significantly predicted higher COVID-19 anxiety in 2020. The interaction between difficulties in emotion regulation in 2016 and perceived stress early in 2020 approached significance in predicting COVID-19 traumatic stress (p = 0.073, d = 0.31) and safety behavior use (p = 0.069, d = 0.31). These findings highlight that current perceived stress is an important context that potentiates the effects of preexisting emotion regulation difficulties on the emergence of anxiety-related symptoms during COVID-19, which has important implications for diathesis-stress models of adverse reactions to chronic stressors.
•COVID-19 is a unique opportunity to examine adverse reactions to chronic stress.•2016 emotion dysregulation & 2020 perceived stress interact to predict COVID anxiety.•The interaction also marginally predicted traumatic stress and safety behavior use.•Findings support diathesis-stress models of adverse reactions to chronic stress.