IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v77y2022i4pe16-e22..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Experiencing and Forecasting COVID-19 Daily Stress on Mental Health Reactivity Across Age and Race

Author

Listed:
  • Ann Pearman
  • MacKenzie L Hughes
  • Clara W Coblenz
  • Emily L Smith
  • Shevaun D Neupert

Abstract

ObjectivesThis study systematically evaluates age and race differences in mental health symptoms as they unfold microlongitudinally during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with a focus on within-person reactivity to forecasting and experiencing COVID-19 stress.MethodA daily diary approach was used to examine predictors of daily anxiety and depressive symptoms among 526 adults (White [54%] and Black American [46%]) aged 21–79. A total of 3,605 online diaries were collected for 21 consecutive days between October and November, 2020. In addition to mental health symptoms, participants reported forecasted (next 24 h) stress as well as experienced (past 24 h) stress related to COVID-19.ResultsPatterns of reactivity to forecasted and experienced COVID-19 stress depended on age and race. White older adults displayed greater reactivity to COVID-19-related stress than White younger adults, but the effects of COVID-19-related stress were consistently detrimental for the daily anxiety of Black Americans, regardless of age. For Black Americans, age was less negatively associated with depressive symptoms than for White Americans. Increases in experienced COVID-19 stress were also more strongly associated with increases in depressive symptoms for Black Americans relative to White participants.DiscussionThis study moves beyond cross-sectional, descriptive work within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasizes the dynamic nature of within-person reactivity patterns that differ by age and race. Although White older adults experienced an increase in daily anxiety when forecasting COVID-19 stress, the co-occurring pandemic of systemic racism may be more powerful than age-related vulnerabilities for Black adults.

Suggested Citation

  • Ann Pearman & MacKenzie L Hughes & Clara W Coblenz & Emily L Smith & Shevaun D Neupert, 2022. "Experiencing and Forecasting COVID-19 Daily Stress on Mental Health Reactivity Across Age and Race," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 77(4), pages 16-22.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:77:y:2022:i:4:p:e16-e22.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbab197
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:77:y:2022:i:4:p:e16-e22.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.