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Coronavirus Fears Contribute to Increased Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescents
Coronavirus fears, fears related to COVID-19, are a new psychological effect that impacts severity of anxiety and depressive disorder symptoms, according to analyses published in Frontiers in Psychology.
Researchers aimed to study the incremental validity of coronavirus fears as a predictor for anxiety and depressive disorder symptom severity.
“Results based on a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that coronavirus fears, negative affect, intolerance of uncertainty, acceptance/tolerance, rumination, and suppression explained unique variance in the severity of anxiety and depressive disorder symptoms,” wrote Bonifacio Sandín, Facultad de Educación, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain.
Researchers analyzed a total of 144 adolescents, 55 boys and 89 girls, aged 12 to 18 who were residents of Spain with access to the internet. Each participant was recommended by their school counselor.
In total, 76.4% of participants showed increased levels of anxiety and depression symptoms, 34% of participants met the diagnostic criteria for anxiety or major depressive disorder, and 53.1% of participants met the diagnostic criteria for comorbid anxiety or depressive disorder.
Participants completed a series of questionaries including the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale-30, which scales social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, separation anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and major depressive disorder; the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for Children and Adolescents, which measures the positive and negative effect of 10 scenarios; and the Distress Tolerance Scale, which assesses how individuals experience distressing psychological states on a scale from 1 to 5, with higher scores showing an increased ability to tolerate distress.
Additional measures included a Coronavirus Fears Scale, an 18-item questionnaire mapping the psychological effects of COVID-19; the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12; and the Emotion Regulation Strategies Questionnaire. All questionaries were completed online.
Participants who showed scores above the clinical cut-off for at least 1 subscale on the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale-30 continued onto the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents, a diagnostic interview for psychiatric disorders, which was conducted via video call with a guardian present.
Researchers conducted 3 hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses using these data to examine the following 3 outcome measures: combined anxiety and depression, depression, and anxiety.
Coronavirus fears did not significantly impact depressive disorder symptoms but more specifically increased severity of anxiety disorder symptoms.
An additional series of path analyses conducted found that acceptance and tolerance, rumination, and suppression contributed to severity of major depressive disorder symptoms in addition to transdiagnostic factors.
“These results indicate that coronavirus fears appear to be a relevant manifestation of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent mental health and that such fears may significantly influence adolescent emotional health, increasing, for example, anxiety disorder symptoms,” Sandín et al concluded.
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