An exploration of happiness, anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms among older adults during the coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of people worldwide. Because of the challenges associated with the pandemic, universal levels of happiness have likely depleted. We know little about how those with prior existing mental health concerns have responded to the pandemic. Using cross-sectional (study 1; N = 1,366) and longitudinal (study 2; N = 262) data, we utilized a stress and resilience perspective to explore mental health symptoms and happiness among older adults before and after the declaration of the pandemic. Results for both studies indicated higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms predicted lower levels of happiness; however, for those who indicated higher levels of mental health symptoms, post-pandemic declaration happiness levels were higher than pre-pandemic happiness levels. Findings suggest that resilience may be learned throughout a lifetime, and that experiences from prior stressors may show benefits in responding to future ones, even among vulnerable populations.

The ABC-X's of Stress among U.S. Emerging Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Relationship Quality, Financial Distress, and Mental Health.

Many emerging adults have experienced increased financial distress and mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, and isolation may have amplified the importance of close relationships (especially as parents' influence diminishes during this developmental stage). Using the ABC-X Model to frame our model, we tested whether financial distress (C) mediates the associations between COVID-19 impact (A) and anxiety and depressive symptoms (X), and whether or not romantic relationship quality (B) moderates these indirect associations. Our sample comprised of 1950 U.S. emerging adults in a romantic relationship. Mediation and first-stage moderated mediation were tested using structural equation modeling. Financial distress partially mediated the association between COVID-19 impact and anxiety symptoms and fully mediated the association between COVID-19 impact and depressive symptoms. Strong evidence of moderated mediation was found but in the opposite direction expected: the indirect associations of COVID-19 impact with anxiety and depressive symptoms (through financial distress) were stronger for those in high-quality romantic relationships. The findings may inform policy and practice aimed at optimizing the mental health of emerging adults, especially in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic: specifically, alleviating financial distress may improve the mental health of emerging adults, while focusing on the quality of their romantic relationships may not.