Using what we know about threat reactivity models to understand mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Prevalence of Fear of Childbirth and Its Association With Intolerance of Uncertainty and Coping Styles Among Pregnant Chinese Women During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The mean score of the CAQ was 32.76 (SD = 9.842), and 67.8% (n = 657) of women had FOC symptoms with a CAQ score ≥ 28. The percentages of women with mild (score of 28-39), moderate (40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51), and severe FOC (52-64) were 43.6, 20.2, and 4.0%, respectively. The mean scores of the SCSQ-P and SCSQ-N were 21.32 (SD = 7.025) and 9.12 (SD = 4.740), respectively.…”

“…Moreover, anxiety sensitivity significantly increased individuals' COVID-19 worries and behaviors, especially those with high IU ( 38 ). Emerging evidence suggests that individuals with high IU may take different threat reactivity strategies (e.g., internet searches and avoidance) to adjust to changing information about COVID-19 threats ( 39 , 40 ). Meanwhile, pregnant women with high IU usually adopt avoidance strategies to cope with stress, which failed to improve the current situation ( 16 , 26 , 27 ).…”

COVID-19-related distress is associated with analogue PTSD symptoms after exposure to an analogue stressor

“…Another limitation which needs to be considered is that, while causality is established in the relationship between associative learning (including film exposure) and analogue symptoms, this cannot be said for the relationship between COVID-19 distress and associative learning. That is, whether individuals showed enhanced fear learning in response to COVID-19-related distress or whether a disposition towards heightened associative learning caused higher COVID-19-related distress (see Funkhouser et al, 2022 ; Hunt et al, 2022 ), cannot be established based on our mediation analyses. Further research is needed to support our hypothesized model, for instance, by examining interindividual differences in associative learning and responses to psychosocial stressors in a cross-lagged panel design.…”

Intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety sensitivity, and health anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic: Exploring temporal relationships using cross-lag analysis

“…Indeed, the consistency of rapidly emerging findings in the past year supporting the role of IU in health anxiety during the pandemic seems to highlight the robustness of this relationship (see also Korte et al, 2021 ). In addition to substantially increased health risks, a salient aspect of the early stages of the pandemic was the uncertainty of such health risks (in general, and in different contexts; see Freeston, Tiplady, Mawn, Bottesi, & Thwaites, 2020 and Funkhouser et al, 2022 ). In turn, individuals with elevated IU may have been more likely to overestimate such health risks (e.g., Bredemeier & Berenbaum, 2008 ; Pepperdine, Lomax, & Freeston, 2018 ; see Funkhouser et al, 2022 ) and/or engage in safety behaviors linked with health anxiety (e.g., pathological information seeking, increased attention and reactivity to physical symptoms/sensations) during times of increased uncertainty.…”

“…We propose that both IU and AS are particularly salient during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may contribute to increased health anxiety during the pandemic (see also Freeston et al, 2022 and Funkhouser, Klemballa, & Shankman, 2022 ). The pandemic has involved a great deal of uncertainty for all, including uncertainty about how the pandemic will evolve and the risks associated with different circumstances and behaviors, which may have led to substantial distress and maladaptive coping in individuals with high levels of IU (for supporting evidence about specific maladaptive coping behaviors, such as information seeking and reassurance seeking, see Bottesi et al, 2021 , Jagtap, Shamblaw, Rumas, & Best, 2021 , and Sauer, Jungmann, & Witthöft, 2020 ; see also Taha et al, 2014 for similar findings from the H1N1 pandemic).…”