Frontline love: Romantic partners of frontline doctors and nurses during the New York City COVID-19 outbreak.

Objective: This qualitative study's aim was to learn how the spouses and romantic partners of frontline doctors and nurses dealt with the acute stress of the outbreak; the kinds of support they provided when the frontliners had to navigate COVID-19 at their hospitals; and, according to their perceptions, how this crisis impacted their relationship. Background: This study focused on the partners of frontliners working in hospitals during the crisis of the coronavirus outbreak in New York City (NYC)-one of the earliest epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. This study expanded upon the Family Stress Model-which examines how economic problems can affect marital quality and stability. Method: Interviews were conducted with 29 partners of frontliners who had been treating COVID-19 patients in NYC hospitals during the pandemic outbreak from February 29 to June 1, 2020. Partners were recruited via snowball sampling, interviewed via Zoom or telephone, and results were analyzed using thematic content analysis. Results: The following themes were found in the narratives: The burden of running the home independently; providing various kinds of support (concrete, emotional, and refraining from sexual and physical closeness); and the effects of the pandemic on the relationship via writing a will and discussing the possibility of death, the lack of relationship-ending threats, and emerging from the crisis with a strengthened relationship. Conclusion: The pandemic crisis unified the partners and frontliners, even in the face of multiple stressors.

Profiles in COVID-19: peritraumatic stress symptoms and their relation with death anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, and emotion dysregulation.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic might be experienced as an ongoing traumatic event and could result in peritraumatic stress symptoms. Evidence implies that individuals' levels of death anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, and difficulties in emotion regulation may contribute to their peritraumatic stress symptomatology in the aftermath of trauma exposure. Objective: The current study aimed to explore these hypotheses in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: An online survey was conducted among a convenience sample of 846 Israeli adults from April 2 to 19 April 2020. COVID-19-related stressors, death anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, difficulties in emotion regulation, and peritraumatic stress symptoms were assessed via self-report questionnaires. Results: Analyses indicated significant relations between death anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, and emotion regulation difficulties, on the one hand, and peritraumatic stress symptoms, on the other. Three distinct profiles were identified. Furthermore, profile type - namely having low, medium, and high levels of death anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, and emotion dysregulation - had a significant effect in explaining peritraumatic stress symptoms. Conclusions: Results suggest that during the pandemic, levels of death anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, and emotion dysregulation may explain heterogeneity in individuals' trauma-related symptomatology.

Antecedentes: La pandemia del COVID-19 podría ser experimentada como un evento traumático en curso y podría resultar en síntomas de estrés peritraumático. La evidencia implica que los niveles individuales de la ansiedad por la muerte, la sensibilidad de la ansiedad, y las dificultades en la regulación emocional podrían contribuir a su sintomatología del estrés peritraumático en las secuelas de la exposición al trauma.Objetivo: El presente estudio buscó explorar estas hipótesis en el contexto de la pandemia del COVID-19.Método: Se realizó una encuesta en línea en una muestra por conveniencia de 846 adultos israelíes desde el 2 al 19 de abril de 2020. Los estresores relacionados al COVID-19, la ansiedad por la muerte, la sensibilidad de ansiedad, las dificultades en la regulación emocional, y los síntomas de estrés peritraumático fueron evaluados por medio de cuestionarios de auto-reporte.Resultados: Los análisis indicaron relaciones significativas entre la ansiedad por la muerte, la sensibilidad de la ansiedad, y las dificultades de regulación emocional, por un lado, y los síntomas de estrés peritraumático, por el otro lado. Tres perfiles distintivos fueron identificados. Además, el tipo de perfil ­ específicamente tener niveles bajos, medios, y altos de ansiedad por la muerte, sensibilidad de la ansiedad, y desregulación emocional ­ tuvieron un efecto significativo en explicar los síntomas de estrés peritraumático.Conclusión: Los resultados sugieren que, durante la pandemia, los niveles de ansiedad por la muerte, sensibilidad de la ansiedad, y desregulación emocional podrían explicar la heterogeneidad en la sintomatología relacionada al trauma de los individuos.

Emotion Regulation and Distress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Childhood Abuse.

The COVID-19 pandemic may be experienced as traumatogenic and may fuel or exacerbate psychological distress and trauma-related symptoms. Based on trauma research, one might expect that survivors of childhood abuse would be susceptible to these negative outcomes during the pandemic, and that among this population a stronger relation between emotion regulation difficulties and symptomatology would be found. Aiming to explore these suppositions, an online survey was conducted among 710 Israeli adults. Of them, 370 were childhood abuse survivors. A history of childhood abuse, COVID-19-related stressors, overall psychological distress, and peritraumatic stress symptoms during the pandemic were assessed via self-report measures. Participants with a history of childhood abuse had elevated overall psychological distress as well as peritraumatic stress symptoms during the pandemic, compared to nonabused participants, above and beyond demographic characteristics and COVID-19-related stressors. Emotion regulation difficulties were related to elevated psychological distress and peritraumatic stress symptoms among both childhood abuse survivors and nonabused participants. Nonetheless, a history of childhood abuse moderated the relations between the emotion regulation difficulty of being unable to engage in goal-directed behaviors when distressed (on one hand) and mental outcomes (on the other): Although the associations between inability to engage in goal-directed behaviors, overall psychological distress, and peritraumatic stress symptoms were nonsignificant among nonabused participants, they were significant among childhood abuse survivors. The current findings suggest that a history of childhood abuse might be a risk factor for distress in the face of COVID-19, and that childhood abuse survivors would benefit from clinical interventions that promote emotion regulation skills during this ongoing global health crisis.