Heterogeneous Mental Health Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: An Examination of Long-Term Trajectories, Risk Factors, and Vulnerable Groups.

Abundant studies have examined mental health in the early periods of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, empirical work examining the mental health impact of the pandemic's subsequent phases remains limited. In the present study, we investigated how mental vulnerability and resilience evolved over the various phases of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 in Germany. Data were collected (n = 3522) across seven measurement occasions using validated and self-generated measures of vulnerability and resilience. We found evidence for an immediate increase in vulnerability during the first lockdown in Germany, a trend towards recovery when lockdown measures were eased, and an increase in vulnerability with each passing month of the second lockdown. Four different latent trajectories of resilience-vulnerability emerged, with the majority of participants displaying a rather resilient trajectory, but nearly 30% of the sample fell into the more vulnerable groups. Females, younger individuals, those with a history of psychiatric disorders, lower income groups, and those with high trait vulnerability and low trait social belonging were more likely to exhibit trajectories associated with poorer mental well-being. Our findings indicate that resilience-vulnerability responses in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been more complex than previously thought, identifying risk groups that could benefit from greater support.

The Wither or Thrive Model of Resilience: an Integrative Framework of Dynamic Vulnerability and Resilience in the Face of Repeated Stressors During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

During the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, empirical efforts in the psychological sciences have been unequivocally focused on understanding the psychosocial impact on resilience and vulnerability. While current empirical work is guided by different existing theoretical models of resilience and vulnerability, the emerging datasets have also pointed to a necessity for an update of these models. Due to the unique features and developments specific to the current pandemic such as the occurrence of repeated collective stressors of varying durations, in the current position paper, we introduce the Wither or Thrive model of Resilience (With:Resilience). It integrates key aspects of prevailing psychological resilience frameworks within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and extends them by (1) moving away from single scale approaches towards a higher-order latent expression of resilience and vulnerability incorporating also non-clinical mental health markers, (2) proposing different trajectories of resilience-vulnerability emerging across repeated stressors over long periods of time, and (3) by incorporating multiple influencing factors including aspects of the socio-economic concept of social cohesion as well as separate mediating processing mechanisms. We propose that With:Resilience will enable a more nuanced approach and appropriate analytical investigation of the vast incoming data on mental health and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we suggest some concrete methodological approaches. This framework will assist in the development of actionable public health guidelines for society in the present and future pandemic contexts as well as aid policy making and the interventional sciences aimed at protecting the most vulnerable amongst us.

Investigating differential effects of socio-emotional and mindfulness-based online interventions on mental health, resilience and social capacities during the COVID-19 pandemic: The study protocol.

BACKGROUND: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has led to a mental health crisis on a global scale. Epidemiological studies have reported a drastic increase in mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, increased loneliness and feelings of disconnectedness from others, while resilience levels have been negatively affected, indicating an urgent need for intervention. The current study is embedded within the larger CovSocial project which sought to evaluate longitudinal changes in vulnerability, resilience and social cohesion during the pandemic. The current second phase will investigate the efficacy of brief online mental training interventions in reducing mental health problems, and enhancing psychological resilience and social capacities. It further provides a unique opportunity for the prediction of intervention effects by individual biopsychosocial characteristics and preceding longitudinal change patterns during the pandemic in 2020/21. METHODS: We will examine the differential effects of a socio-emotional (including 'Affect Dyad') and a mindfulness-based (including 'Breathing Meditation') intervention, delivered through a web- and cellphone application. Participants will undergo 10 weeks of intervention, and will be compared to a retest control group. The effectiveness of the interventions will be evaluated in a community sample (N = 300), which is recruited from the original longitudinal CovSocial sample. The pre- to post-intervention changes, potential underlying mechanisms, and prediction thereof, will be assessed on a wide range of outcomes: levels of stress, loneliness, depression and anxiety, resilience, prosocial behavior, empathy, compassion, and the impact on neuroendocrine, immunological and epigenetic markers. The multi-method nature of the study will incorporate self-report questionnaires, behavioral tasks, ecological momentary assessment (EMA) approaches, and biological, hormonal and epigenetic markers assessed in saliva. DISCUSSION: Results will reveal the differential effectiveness of two brief online interventions in improving mental health outcomes, as well as enhancing social capacities and resilience. The present study will serve as a first step for future application of scalable, low-cost interventions at a broader level to reduce stress and loneliness, improve mental health and build resilience and social capacities in the face of global stressors. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial has been registered on May 17, 2020 with the ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04889508 registration number (clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04889508).