(PS9-A14) Unique and Interactive Effects of Emotion Regulation and Perceived Stress on COVID-19 Distress and Anxiety: A Four-year Prospective Study

As of March 2022, there have been over 78 million cases and around 950,000 deaths in the United States (Center for Disease Control) due to COVID-19. In response to the pandemic, individual’s daily activities were altered, leading to increased feelings of stress and anxiety (Dean et al., 2021). However, much remains unknown about the unique and interactive predictors of COVID-related distress. Given that emotion dysregulation has been shown to confer risk for poor responses to stress (Tyra et al., 2021), difficulties in emotion regulation may predict more severe COVID-19 related stress and anxiety. Indeed, ‘poor’ emotion regulation strategies 1-year prior to the pandemic are associated with poorer general psychological and physical health during COVID-19 (Low et al., 2021). Emotion regulation difficulties may also confer risk for more severe COVID-19 related distress and anxiety when perceived stress is high. The present study examines this hypothesized interaction between emotional regulation and perceived stress in predicting COVID-related distress and anxiety. Research along these lines may inform evidence-based diathesis-stress models of COVID-19 related distress.

 A total of 160 participants that were predominantly female (n = 138, 86.3%) and White (n = 146, 91.8%) completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Dan-Glauser & Scherer, 2012) between June and August of 2016. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. (March 2020), participants completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen et al., 1983). When novel cases were at their peak in December of 2020, participants then completed the Coronavirus Stress Scales (CSS; Taylor et al., 2020) and Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS; Silva, de Sampaio Brito, & Pereira, 2020). Multiple regression analysis was used to examine if emotion regulation in 2016 and perceived stress in March of 2020 uniquely and/or interactively predicted coronavirus related distress in December of 2020. Together, the DERS and PSS explained 19.4% of the variance in coronavirus related stress in 2020, and the R² change was significant, F(2,132) = 15.89, p < .001. However, only the PSS uniquely predicted summed CSS scores in Dec 2020, β = 1.04, t = 4.59, p < 0.001. Additionally, the interaction between PSS and DERS was only marginally significant, β = 0.026, t = 1.69, p = 0.09. Similarly, the DERS in 2016 and PSS in March 2020 explained 12.2% of the variance in coronavirus related anxiety in Dec 2020, and the R² change was significant, F(2,142) = 9.86, p < 0.001. However, only the PSS uniquely predicted CAS levels in Dec 2020, β = 0.064, t = 2.88, p = 0.005. Furthermore, there was a significant DERS X PSS interaction in predicting COVID-19 anxiety in Dec 2020, β = 0.005, t = 3.49, p = 0.001. Examination of this interaction revealed that for those low in emotion dysregulation in 2016, there was no significant relationship between perceived stress and COVID anxiety in 2020. However, perceived stress was significantly positively related to COVID anxiety in 2020 for those high in emotion dysregulation in 2016. These findings provide evidence for the unique and interactive prospective associations between emotion dysregulation and perceived stress when predicting COVID-19 related anxiety and distress symptoms.