The psychological and social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are pervasive, and there is potential for a long-lasting impact on mental health. In the current study, we sought to provide, in a representative sample of UK residents during the third COVID-19 lockdown in February 2021, further evidence for the validation of the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome construct. We did this by evaluating the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome against measures of personality, health anxiety and COVID-19 anxiety in predicting levels of generalized anxiety and depression and by examining whether increased health anxiety and COVID-19 psychological distress (COVID-19 anxiety and COVID-19 anxiety syndrome) scores were associated with increased attentional bias to COVID-19-related stimuli. A series of correlation analyses revealed that neuroticism, health anxiety, COVID-19 anxiety and COVID-19 anxiety syndrome scores were positively and significantly correlated with generalized anxiety and depression scores and that the perseveration component of the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome predicted generalized anxiety and depression scores independently of age, gender, conscientiousness, openness, health anxiety and COVID-19 anxiety. Furthermore, results indicated that only the total COVID-19 anxiety syndrome score and the scores on the avoidance and perseveration components were positively and significantly correlated with attentional bias indices. More specifically, the general attentional bias index was only shown to be positively and significantly correlated with the total COVID-19 anxiety syndrome score and its perseveration component, while slowed disengagement was only shown to be negatively and significantly correlated with the total COVID-19 anxiety syndrome score and its avoidance component. The implications of these findings are discussed.

中文翻译：

---

2020-2021 年大流行期间英国居民的 COVID-19 焦虑综合征和对 COVID-19 相关刺激的选择性注意偏见

COVID-19 大流行的心理和社会影响是普遍存在的，并且有可能对心理健康产生长期影响。在当前的研究中，我们试图在 2021 年 2 月第三次 COVID-19 封锁期间的英国居民的代表性样本中提供进一步的证据，以验证 COVID-19 焦虑综合征结构。我们通过评估 COVID-19 焦虑综合征与人格、健康焦虑和 COVID-19 焦虑的测量来预测广泛性焦虑和抑郁的水平，并检查是否增加了健康焦虑和 COVID-19 心理困扰（COVID-19 焦虑和COVID-19 焦虑综合征）评分与对 COVID-19 相关刺激的注意力偏向增加有关。一系列相关分析表明，神经质、健康焦虑、COVID-19 焦虑和 COVID-19 焦虑综合征评分与广泛性焦虑和抑郁评分呈正相关且显着相关，并且 COVID-19 焦虑综合征的持续性成分独立于年龄、性别、责任心、开放性、健康焦虑和 COVID-19 焦虑。此外，结果表明，只有 COVID-19 焦虑综合征总得分以及回避和坚持成分的得分与注意偏差指数呈正相关且显着相关。更具体地说，一般注意力偏差指数仅显示与 COVID-19 焦虑综合征总分及其持续性成分呈正相关且显着相关，而缓慢的脱离接触仅被证明与 COVID-19 焦虑综合征总分及其回避成分呈负相关且显着相关。讨论了这些发现的含义。