Stress, anxiety, emotion regulation and social support in parent-child dyads prior to and during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2020, and in order to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stress and mental health in parent-child dyads using pre-pandemic measures, we recontacted participants from a 2019 study. A total of 136 dyads of Canadian parents (77% mothers, mean age = 44.48 years/old) and children (63% girls, 77% aged 10-12 years/old and 23% aged 15-17 years/old) completed self-report measures of perceived stress, anxiety (state/sensitivity) and emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal/expressive suppression). Children additionally completed measures of co-rumination and perceived social support from friends, parents, and teachers. Results revealed a significant increase in parents' stress and state anxiety during the pandemic compared to before, but not in their children. Dyads' anxiety sensitivity remained unchanged, as well as parents' use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Children showed similar use of cognitive reappraisal, but less expressive suppression and co-rumination during the pandemic compared to before. Children reported similar perceived social support from all sources over time. Finally, parental and children scores were not significantly correlated at either time. These results suggest that during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, parents and children responded differently in terms of stress, anxiety, and emotion regulation strategies.

When asking 'are you stressed?' is not enough: Hair cortisol, subjective stress, and alcohol use during the first year of the pandemic.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by an increase in alcohol use in a third of the population worldwide. To date, the literature shows that subjective reports of stress predicted increased alcohol use during the early stages of the pandemic. However, no studies have investigated the effect of physiological stress (via the stress hormone cortisol) on alcohol use during the pandemic. This study aimed to identify the predictive value of cortisol and/or subjective stress on alcohol use during the first year of the pandemic. Every three months, between June 2020 and March 2021, 79 healthy adults (19-54 years old) answered online questionnaires assessing alcohol use. In May 2020, participants reported pre-pandemic alcohol use, while in June 2020, participants reported current alcohol use, subjective stress measures, and provided a 6 cm hair sample. The latter allowed us to quantify the cumulative levels of cortisol produced in the three months prior to and following the start of the mandatory lockdown measures in March 2020 in Quebec, Canada. A relative change in hair cortisol was computed to quantify the physiological stress response. While controlling for sex, age, and psychiatric diagnoses, multilevel linear regressions revealed that alcohol use increased only among people with concomitant high subjective stress and elevated hair cortisol concentrations. Moreover, this increased alcohol use remained elevated one year later. This study documents the importance of simultaneously considering stress biomarkers and subjective stress to identify people at risk of increasing their alcohol use during major stressful life events.

Mental Health and Social Support of Sexual and Gender Diverse People from Québec, Canada During the COVID-19 Crisis.

Purpose: Sexual and gender minority (SGM) people are at increased risk for psychological distress compared with cisgender heterosexual people. Specific SGM subgroups include lesbian, gay, bisexual, gender diverse, and asexual people who each experience unique psychosocial challenges that can result in different mental health outcomes. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may have further exacerbated mental health disparities among these groups. The aim of this study was to compare lesbian, gay, bisexual, gender diverse, asexual, and cisgender heterosexual people's mental health and social support during the first 4 months of the COVID-19 crisis. Methods: This study used a cross-sectional online survey from March 26th, 2020 to July 7th, 2020 in Québec, Canada. A total of 2908 individuals (n = 304 SGM people, n = 2604 cisgender heterosexual people) completed questionnaires measuring perceived social support, perceived stress, symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as loneliness. Results: SGM people presented worse health outcomes than cisgender heterosexual people on all questionnaires (p < 0.001). Post hoc analyses showed that particularly marginalized SGM subgroups, including bisexual and asexual people, reported the poorest mental health. Moderation analyses revealed that the buffering effect of social support on depressive symptoms was four times stronger among SGM people (ΔR2 = 0.041; p < 0.001) than among cisgender heterosexual people (ΔR2 = 0.010; p < 0.001). Conclusion: This study suggests that fostering social connectedness among SGM people may be especially beneficial in buffering against distress in the face of a crisis.

A Cross-Sectional Study Investigating Canadian and Australian Adolescents' Perceived Experiences of COVID-19: Gender Differences and Mental Health Implications.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) disease pandemic has been associated with adverse psychological outcomes. This cross-cultural study (N = 1326, 71% female) aimed to investigate Canadian and Australian adolescents' subjective experiences of COVID-19, gender differences, and psychological implications. Mixed-methods analyses were used to examine differences in COVID-19 experiences and mental health outcomes between country and gender in a Canadian (N = 913, 78% female) and an Australian sample (N = 413, 57% female) of adolescents. Canadian adolescents reported increased COVID-19 discussions and more concerns related to their COVID-19 experiences compared to Australian adolescents. Girls consistently reported more concerns related to COVID-19 and poorer psychological outcomes compared to boys. School lockdown for the Canadian sample may have played a role in these country differences. Further, girls might be at significantly more risk for mental health concerns during COVID-19, which should be considered in adolescent mental health initiatives during the pandemic. Although school disruption and separation of peers due to the pandemic likely have a role in adolescent perceived stressors and mental health, the differences between Canadian and Australian adolescents were less clear and future investigations comparing more objective pre-COVID-19 data to current data are needed.

Stress and Pain Before, During and After the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Exploratory Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study.

Aims: This study explores the association between subjective feeling of stress and pain experience in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on characteristics known to trigger a physiological stress response [sense of low control, threat to ego, unpredictability and novelty (STUN)]. Methods: This exploratory longitudinal convergent mixed methods design consisted of online questionnaires over three time points (before, during and after the 1st wave of the COVID-19 pandemic) (N = 49) and qualitative interviews (N = 27) during the 1st wave of the pandemic on distinct samples of individuals living with chronic pain (CP). Both types of data sources were mixed upon integration using joint display. Results: Mean pain intensity scores remained stable across time points, while pain unpleasantness and pain interference scores significantly improved. Global impression of change scores measured during the first wave of the pandemic do not entirely concord with pain scores evolution. Two thirds of participants reported a global deterioration of their pain condition at the beginning of the pandemic. Stress and pain catastrophizing before the pandemic were associated with pain scores throughout the pandemic; while most specific measures of stress due to the novel, uncontrollable, unpredictable and threatening nature of the pandemic were not. Qualitative data demonstrated that the deterioration reported in pain status reflected additional dimensions, including spatial expansion of the painful area, reduced access to treatments and challenges in adapting pain management strategies. Conclusions: Helping individuals to negotiate stressful aspects of the pandemic might help offset the negative impacts of stress on pain status in this context or other important life events.

The 3D-Transition Study: Objectives, Methods, and Implementation of an Innovative Planned Missing-Data Design.

The prevalence of mental health problems represents a significant burden on school and community health resources as early as preschool. Reducing this burden requires a better understanding of the developmental mechanisms linking children's early vulnerabilities with mental health after the transition to formal schooling. The 3D-Transition Study (2017-2021) follows 939 participants from a pregnancy cohort in the province of Québec, Canada, as they transition to kindergarten and first grade to examine these mechanisms. Biannual assessments include completed questionnaires from 2 parents as well as teachers, parent-child observations, anthropometric measurements, and age-sensitive cognitive assessments. Saliva is also collected on 11 days over a 16-month period in a subsample of 384 participants to examine possible changes in child salivary cortisol levels across the school transition and their role in difficulties observed during the transition. A combination of planned missing-data designs is being implemented to reduce participant burden, where incomplete data are collected without introducing bias after the use of multiple imputation. The 3D-Transition Study will contribute to an evidence-based developmental framework of child mental health from pregnancy to school age. In turn, this framework can help inform prevention programs delivered in health-care settings during pregnancy and in child-care centers, preschools, and schools.

Staying informed without a cost: No effect of positive news media on stress reactivity, memory and affect in young adults.

INTRODUCTION: We read, see and hear news from various media sources every day. A large majority of the news is negative. A previous study from our laboratory showed that reading negative news is associated with both increased stress reactivity (measured via the stress hormone cortisol) and recall of the negative news segments in women. OBJECTIVES: The present study investigated the effects of positive news on cortisol stress reactivity, memory and affect using a methodology highly similar to the study on negative news that was previously used by our team. METHODS: Sixty-two healthy participants aged between 18 and 35 years (81% women) were randomly exposed to either positive or neutral news segments, followed by a laboratory stressor. We assessed participants' affect three times during the procedure and measured cortisol in saliva eight times (at 10-minute intervals). Twenty-four hours later, participants were contacted by phone to assess their recall of the news segments. RESULTS: Results showed that exposure to positive news, relative to neutral news, did not modulate participants' cortisol levels in response to the laboratory stressor. Positive news had no impact on memory recall of the news and did not change participants' positive or negative affect. Bayes factors suggested that these nonsignificant results are not attributable to low statistical power. CONCLUSION: Contrary to negative news, positive and neutral news do not modulate stress reactivity, memory and affect. These results suggest that people can stay informed without physiological and psychological costs when the news to which they are exposed adopt a positive or neutral approach.