Almost overnight, the rapid emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and subsequent state and federal prevention measures dramatically altered daily behavior. A new study provides the first snapshot of the immediate impact of COVID-19 on Americans’ stress levels, coping strategies, and adherence to public health guidelines.
A new study by researchers from the University of Connecticut provides the first snapshot of the immediate impact of COVID-19 on Americans’ stress levels, coping strategies, and adherence to public health guidelines.
For the study, which was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the team surveyed over 1,000 English-speaking individuals, 18 years of age or older, living in the United States. Responses were collected in early April 2020, giving the researchers a unique view of how Americans are handling their new reality.
«Almost overnight, the rapid emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and subsequent state and federal prevention measures dramatically altered daily behavior,» says Crystal Park, professor of in the Department of Psychological Sciences. «This unique, early study and our planned future work will let us see how Americans navigate all of these changes, and how their response to this stress evolves over time.»
In the study, the UConn researchers present baseline data on COVID-19-related stressors in three categories: stress related to the virus itself, stress related to changes in daily routines caused by the pandemic, and financial or resource-related stress. These measures allowed them to examine the circumstance-specific stressors of COVID-19 rather than global stress that could have other causes.
Based on previous work during SARS outbreaks and the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers created an assessment of 23 COVID-19 stressors and their degree of stressfulness. The survey showed that Americans have high stress exposure from COVID-19, and that some demographic groups appear particularly vulnerable to stress effects. Reading or hearing about the severity and contagiousness of COVID-19 was the most common stressor, with almost 97% of survey respondents experiencing it. Uncertainty about the duration of social distancing requirements and changes to social and daily personal care routines also ranked high on the list of stressors with between 80% and 88% of those surveyed experiencing them.
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Materials provided by University of Connecticut. Original written by Jessica McBride. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.