The relations between COVID-19 stress, social connectedness, and mental health: a longitudinal investigation comparing Chinese and American college students

College students in the U.S. and China have faced significant challenges during COVID-19. Data were collected from 120 Amerian students (Mage = 19.48, SDage = 1.30) and 119 Chinese students (Mage = 18.61, SDage = 0.91) in November, 2019 and March, 2020 to examine risk and protective factors for mental health (depression, anxiety, life satisfaction) during the pandemic, and potential cultural and gender differences. Results indicated that the frequency and impact of COVID-19-related stressful life events predicted deterioration of mental health over time, while social connectedness before the pandemic buffered the negative impact of COVID-19 stressful life events on life satisfaction. Chinese students reported higher levels of social connectedness and larger impact of COVID-19-related stressful life events, but lower frequency of stressful life events than American students. Stressful life events and social connectedness predicted mental health outcomes similarly for Chinese and American students. Gender differences were identified. Females reported more stressful life events, higher levels of depression, anxiety and less life satisfaction during COVID-19 than males. In addition, the frequency of stressful life events had a stronger impact on depression and anxiety for females compared with males. It is important to implement prevention and intervention programs to promote social connections and wellbeing among college students, especially among female students.

COVID-19 stressful life events and mental health: Personality and coping styles as moderators.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the role of COVID-19-specific stressful life events (SLE) in predicting depression, anxiety, and life satisfaction, and if personality traits (extraversion and neuroticism), and coping styles (problem-focused coping and avoidance coping) moderated these relations. PARTICIPANTS: Data were collected from 371 college students (Mage = 20.59; SDage = 2.58) from one large university of the Mid-Atlantic region in the U.S. METHODS: Participants completed an online survey measuring COVID-19 related stressful life events (adapted from a tool developed to measure stressful life events during the SARS pandemic; Costa et al., 2001; Main et al., 2011), personality (the Mini-Markers; Saucier, 1994), coping styles (by using a measure developed by Aldrige-Gerry et al., 2011), depression (PHQ-9; Kroenke et al., 2011), anxiety (GAD-7; Spitzer et al., 2006), and life satisfaction (Student's Life Satisfaction Scale, Huebner, 1996) between March 27th and April 27th, 2020. RESULTS: Path analysis results showed that extraversion and avoidance coping style moderated the effects of SLE on depression and anxiety symptoms; neuroticism and avoidance coping style moderated the relation between SLE and life satisfaction. The moderation results also differed by gender. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic had deleterious effects on college students' mental health, where extraversion emerged as a protective factor, while neuroticism and avoidance coping style were risk factors. These findings underscore the importance of paying special attention to college students' mental health needs and promoting appropriate coping strategies in the light of the current pandemic.

Parent work-life conflict and adolescent adjustment during COVID-19: Mental health and parenting as mediators.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is an unprecedented challenging time for parents and adolescents. The present study examines the role of parent work-life conflict on adolescent adjustment (i.e., academic engagement and mental health) and family processes (i.e., parental mental health and parenting) as potential mediators for this association. A total of 692 middle school students (53.2% boys; Mage = 13.54 years, SDage = 0.58) and their parents (29.6% fathers and 70.4% mothers; Mage = 44.75 years, SDage = 4.14 years) completed an online survey in May 2020 in Beijing, China. Results indicated that many parents (24.6%) experienced work-life conflicts amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings also showed that parent work-life conflict was negatively associated with youth academic engagement and mental health indirectly through parental mental health difficulties and parenting behavior (parental control, autonomy granting, and parental involvement). In addition, parental mental health difficulties had direct and indirect effects on youth adjustment via parenting behaviors, such that parental involvement and autonomy granting predicted greater academic engagement and covitality (co-occurrence of positive traits and positive mental health), whereas the parental control predicted youth mental health difficulties. Our findings extend prior research by examining the pathways linking parental work-life conflict to youth adjustment during COVID-19. Findings are discussed in terms of how to better support families and promote better youth academic engagement and well-being during COVID-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).