Abstract

Objectives: Psychosocial stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic may increase the risk of depression and anxiety in the general population. Individuals approaching or within older adulthood may be especially vulnerable to these psychosocial stressors and their impact on mental health outcomes. Consequently, there is an urgent need to identify protective factors for older adults. The purpose of the present study was to determine the relative contribution of coping flexibility (CF) and two distinct coping strategies, forward-focused and trauma-focused, on negative affect in persons 50 years of age and older during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method: Data were collected using an online survey, including questions about demographic information, coping, depression, and anxiety. Participants aged 50 and over were included in our analyses of depression (N = 800) and anxiety (N = 638).

Results: Both higher CF and higher forward-focused coping predicted lower depression and lower anxiety. In contrast, higher trauma-focused coping predicted slightly higher depressive symptoms but was not a significant predictor of anxiety.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that higher forward-focused coping may serve as a protective factor in older adults during the pandemic and, therefore, may be an effective treatment target for mental health interventions.

摘要

目标：与 COVID-19 大流行相关的社会心理压力可能会增加普通人群患抑郁症和焦虑症的风险。接近成年期或成年期的人可能特别容易受到这些社会心理压力源及其对心理健康结果的影响。因此，迫切需要确定老年人的保护因素。本研究的目的是确定应对灵活性 (CF) 和两种不同的应对策略（前向聚焦和创伤聚焦）对 COVID-19 大流行期间 50 岁及以上人群的负面影响的相对贡献。

方法：使用在线调查收集数据，包括有关人口统计信息、应对、抑郁和焦虑的问题。50 岁及以上的参与者被纳入我们对抑郁症（N = 800）和焦虑症（N = 638）的分析。

结果：较高的 CF 和较高的前瞻性应对都预示着较低的抑郁和较低的焦虑。相比之下，更高的以创伤为中心的应对方式预测抑郁症状略高，但不是焦虑的显着预测因子。

结论：我们的研究结果表明，在大流行期间，更高的前瞻性应对可能成为老年人的保护因素，因此可能是心理健康干预的有效治疗目标。