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Prospective Links between Multidimensional Risk and Resilience Factors and Pandemic Related Distress

Wed, April 7, 3:15 to 4:15pm EDT (3:15 to 4:15pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Understanding how risk and resilience factors influence developmental outcomes as a function of adversity is critical for identification and prevention of maladaptive outcomes. In prior work, we developed a brief multidimensional battery to assess seven risk and resilience factors, spanning interpersonal, intrapersonal, and environmental contexts (citation blinded for review). We showed that these domains were related to concurrent anxiety, depression, and clinical ratings of global functioning. However, it remains unclear how these multiple risk and resilience factors prospectively influence an individual’s vulnerability to stress and mental health during adversity. Using a longitudinal design, the current study examined how a diverse set of risk and resilience factors predicted distress responses to the global COVID-19 pandemic in youth and young adults. We also examined the stability of these risk and resilience factors across time.

Participants included N=110 (44% females, 42% Black, 42% White) individuals that were assessed at two time points, on average 22 months apart. At Time1 (Mean age=18.77yrs; range 8-28) participants completed the brief Risk and Resilience battery (citation blinded for review) that assessed: Self-Reliance, Peer Victimization, Emotion Dysregulation, Close Supportive and Hostile Relationships, Neighborhood Danger, and Stressful Life Events. Participants also reported on their anxiety (Promis Pediatric Anxiety; Irwin et al., 2010) and depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001). At Time 2 (Mean age=20yrs; range 10-31) participants reported on their anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7; Spitzer et al., 2006) and depression (Patient Health Questionnaire 2; Arroll et a., 2010) via an online survey administered during the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., summer of 2020). Participants also rated their level of worry about six different pandemic-related items. The Risk and Resilience battery was also administered at Time2. Regression analyses were used to look at the prospective relations between risk and resilience at Time1 and distress at Time2, during a global pandemic. Regression analyses controlled for age and race. Temporal consistency of risk and resilience factors across the two timepoints was assessed via correlations.

Regression analyses revealed that Time 1 Emotion Dysregulation (β=.28,t=2.85,p=.005), Hostile Close Relationships (β=.34,t=-2.24,p=.035), and Neighborhood Danger (β=.29,t=2.75,p=.007), significantly predicted increased pandemic-related worry at Time 2 controlling for Time1 anxiety. This set of factors predicted response to a future pervasive stressor over and above the susceptibility associated with baseline anxiety. Logistic regression analyses showed that Peer Victimization, Emotion Dysregulation, Close Secure Relationships, and Close Hostile Relationships all significantly predicted positive anxiety screening status during the pandemic (all ps<.036); however, these links were not statistically significant after controlling for Time1 anxiety. Close Hostile Relationships predicted positive depression screening status at Time2 (p=.0386), but findings were not significant after controlling for Time1 depression.

All risk and resilience factors showed high temporal consistency across timepoints; all rs>.52,ps<.001, with the exception of Close Hostile Relationships which had a weaker, albeit significant, correlation, r=.32,p=.001. These consistency estimates were of similar magnitude to the temporal correlations found with ratings of anxiety (r=.54,p<.001) and depression (r=.57,p<.001) in the sample.

Implications of these findings for resilience science and developmental psychopathology research will be discussed.

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