Affect and mental health across the lifespan during a year of the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of emotion regulation strategies and mental flexibility

Online First Publication, May 18, 2023. OnlinePublDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a rise in common mental health problems compared to prepandemic levels, especially in young people. Understanding the factors that place young people at risk is critical to guide the response to increased mental health problems. Here we examine whether age-related differences in mental flexibility and frequency of use of emotion regulation strategies partially account for the poorer affect and increased mental health problems reported by younger people during the pandemic. Participants (N= 2,367; 11–100 years) from Australia, the UK, and US were surveyed thrice at 3-month intervals between May 2020 and April 2021. Participants completed measures of emotion regulation, mental flexibility, affect, and mental health. Younger age was associated with less positive (b=0.008, p,.001) and more negative (b=−0.015, p,.001) affect across the first year of the pandemic. Maladaptive emotion regulation partially accounted for age-related variance in negative affect (β=−0.013, p=.020), whereby younger age was associated with more frequent use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, which, in turn, was associated with more negative affect at our third assessment point. More frequent use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies, and in turn, changes in negative affect from our first to our third assessment, partially accounted for age-related variance in mental health problems (β= 0.007, p=.023). Our findings add to the growing literature demonstrating the vulnerability of younger people during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest that emotion regulation may be a promising target for intervention.Savannah Minihan, Annabel Songco, Elaine Fox, Cecile D. Ladouceur, Louise Mewton, Michelle Moulds, Jennifer H. Pfeifer, Anne-Laura Van Harmelen, and Susanne Schweize

The effect of intolerance of uncertainty on anxiety and depression, and their symptom networks, during the COVID-19 pandemic

Individuals vary in their ability to tolerate uncertainty. High intolerance of uncertainty (the tendency to react nega‑ tively to uncertain situations) is a known risk factor for mental health problems. In the current study we examined the degree to which intolerance of uncertainty predicted depression and anxiety symptoms and their interrelations across the frst year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined these associations across three time points (May 2020 – April 2021) in an international sample of adults (N=2087, Mean age=41.13) from three countries (UK, USA, Australia) with varying degrees of COVID-19 risk. We found that individuals with high and moderate levels of intolerance of uncertainty reported reductions in depression and anxiety symptoms over time. However, symptom levels remained signifcantly elevated compared to individuals with low intolerance of uncertainty. Individuals with low intolerance of uncertainty had low and stable levels of depression and anxiety across the course of the study. Network analyses further revealed that the relationships between depression and anxiety symptoms became stronger over time among individuals with high intolerance of uncertainty and identified that feeling afraid showed the strongest association with intolerance of uncertainty. Our findings are consistent with previous work identifying intolerance of uncertainty as an important risk factor for mental health problems, especially in times marked by actual health, economic and social uncertainty. The results highlight the need to explore ways to foster resilience among individuals who struggle to tolerate uncertainty, as ongoing and future geopolitical, climate and health threats will likely lead to continued exposure to significant uncertainty.Jack L. Andrews, Meiwei Li, Savannah Minihan, Annabel Songco, Elaine Fox, Cecile D. Ladouceur, Louise Mewton, Michelle Moulds, Jennifer H. Pfeifer, Anne, Laura Van Harmelen, and Susanne Schweize

Social determinants of mental health during a year of the COVID-19 pandemic

OnlinePublBelonging is a basic human need, with social isolation signaling a threat to biological fitness. Sensitivity to ostracism varies across individuals and the lifespan, peaking in adolescence. Government-imposed restrictions upon social interactions during COVID-19 may therefore be particularly detrimental to young people and those most sensitive to ostracism. Participants (N = 2367; 89.95% female, 11–100 years) from three countries with differing levels of government restrictions (Australia, UK, and USA) were surveyed thrice at three-month intervals (May 2020 – April 2021). Young people, and those living under the tightest government restrictions, reported the worst mental health, with these inequalities in mental health remaining constant throughout the study period. Further dissection of these results revealed that young people high on social rejection sensitivity reported the most mental health problems at the final assessment. These findings help account for the greater impact of enforced social isolation on young people’s mental health, and open novel avenues for intervention.Savannah Minihan, Amy Orben, Annabel Songco, Elaine Fox, Cecile D. Ladouceur, Louise Mewton, Michelle Moulds, Jennifer H. Pfeifer, Anne-Laura Van Harmelen, and Susanne Schweize

Looking for Outcomes: The Experience of Control and Sense of Agency in Obsessive-compulsive Behaviors

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) can be conceptualized as a disturbance of control over one’s thoughts and actions, and through them, over external events. Classically, there are two general approaches to the explanation of OCD symptoms: a cognitive account that emphasizes the important role played by dysfunctional beliefs in the exaggerated appraisals of negative outcomes (i.e., harm avoidance) and a sensory phenomena account that highlights the role of impaired action monitoring in inconsistent feelings of dissatisfaction with actual outcomes (i.e., incompleteness). In this chapter, we review the phenomenology of these two OCD manifestations in light of the sense of agency framework. We argue that harm avoidance and incompleteness should be construed as distinct forms of defective outcome processing, leading to distinct impairments of the experience of action

The Human Affectome

Over the last decades, the interdisciplinary field of the affective sciences has seen proliferation rather than integration of theoretical perspectives. This is due to differences in metaphysical and mechanistic assumptions about human affective phenomena (what they are and how they work) which, shaped by academic motivations and values, have determined the affective constructs and operationalizations. An assumption on the purpose of affective phenomena can be used as a teleological principle to guide the construction of a common set of metaphysical and mechanistic assumptions—a framework for human affective research. In this capstone paper for the special issue “Towards an Integrated Understanding of the Human Affectome”, we gather the tiered purpose of human affective phenomena to synthesize assumptions that account for human affective phenomena collectively. This teleologically-grounded framework offers a principled agenda and launchpad for both organizing existing perspectives and generating new ones. Ultimately, we hope Human Affectome brings us a step closer to not only an integrated understanding of human affective phenomena, but an integrated field for affective research