Although anxiety and worry can motivate engagement with COVID-19 preventative behaviours, people may cognitively reframe these unpleasant emotions, restoring wellbeing at the cost of public health behaviours. New Zealand young adults (n = 278) experiencing nationwide COVID-19 lockdown reported their worry, anxiety, reappraisal and lockdown compliance. Despite high knowledge of lockdown policies, 92.5% of participants reported one or more policy breaches (M= 2.74, SD = 1.86). Counter to predictions, no relationships were found between anxiety or worry with reappraisal or lockdown breaches. Findings highlight the importance of targeting young adults in promoting lockdown compliance and offer further insight into the role of emotion during a pandemic.
AldaoANolen-HoeksemaS (2012) When are adaptive strategies most predictive of psychopathology?Journal of Abnormal Psychology121(1): 276–281.
2.
AldaoANolen-HoeksemaSSchweizerS (2010) Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review30: 217–237.
3.
AlfanoVErcolanoS (2020) The efficacy of lockdown against COVID-19: A cross-country panel analysis. Applied Health Economics and Health Policy18: 509–517.
4.
AlvisLDouglasRShookNJ, et al. (2020) Adolescents’ prosocial experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic: Associations with mental health and community attachments. PsyArXiv. DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/2s73n.
BrikiWDagotL (2020) “Liberate!”—Republicans are more willing to get back to social life because they are less scared of COVID-19. PsyArXiv. DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/thuwd.
7.
BrooksSKWebsterRKSmithLE, et al. (2020) The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of the evidence. The Lancet395: 912–920.
8.
BrownRJSkellyNChew-GrahamCA (2020) Online health research and health anxiety: A systematic review and conceptual integration. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice27(2): e12299.
9.
BultsMBeaujeanDJMAde ZwartO, et al. (2011) Perceived risk, anxiety, and behavioural responses of the general public during the early phase of the influenza a (H1N1) pandemic in the Netherlands: Results of three consecutive online surveys. BMC Public Health11(2): 1–13.
Castellano-TejedorCTorres-SerranoMCencerradoA (2021) Psychological impact in the time of COVID-19: A cross-sectional population survey study during confinement. Journal of Health Psychology. Epub ahead of print 6 January 2021. DOI: 10.1177/1359105320985580.
12.
CavanaghSRFitzgeraldEJUrryHL (2014) Emotion reactivity and regulation are associated with psychological functioning following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis in Japan. Emotion14(2): 235–240.
Domínguez-SalasSGómez-SalgadoJAndrés-VillasM, et al. (2020) Psycho-emotional approach to the psychological distress related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain: A cross-sectional observational study. Healthcare8: 190–210.
15.
FordBQFeinbergMLamP, et al. (2018) Using reappraisal to regulate negative emotion after the 2016 U.S. presidential election: Does emotion regulation trump political action?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology117(5): 998–1015.
16.
FordBQKarnilowiczHRMaussIB (2017) Understanding reappraisal as a multicomponent process: The psychological health benefits of attempting to use reappraisal depend on reappraisal success. Emotion17(6): 905–911.
17.
FraserGBulbuliaJGreavesLM, et al. (2019) Coding responses to an open-ended gender measure in a New Zealand national sample. Journal of Sex Research57(8): 979–986.
18.
GrossJJ (1998) Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology74(1): 224–237.
19.
GrossJJJohnOP (2003) Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology85(2): 348–362.
20.
HarperCASatchellLPFidoD, et al. (2020) Functional fear predicts public health compliance in the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. Epub ahead of print 27 April 2020. DOI: 10.1007/s11469-020-00281-5.
21.
HenryJDCrawfordJR (2005) The short-form version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21): Construct validity and normative data in a large non-clinical sample. British Journal of Clinical Psychology44(2): 227–239.
22.
HongboLHaniaAWaqasM (2020) Psychological predictors of anxiety in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from Pakistan. PsyArXiv. DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/gk6mt.
23.
HuXYanHCaseyT, et al. (2020) Creating a safe haven during the crisis: How organisations can achieve deep compliance with covid-19 safety measures in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management92: 102662.
24.
JavierRSFRobertoLC (2021) Stress, coping, and preventing contagion during the SARS-COV2 epidemic in a sample of Mexican adults. Journal of Health Psychology. Epub ahead of print 7 January 2021. DOI: 10.1359105320985578.
25.
JungmannSMWitthöftM (2020) Health anxiety, cyberchondria, and coping in the current covid-19 pandemic: Which factors are related to coronavirus anxiety?Journal of Anxiety Disorders73: 102239.
26.
KruegerJ (2015) The affective ‘we’: Self-regulation and shared emotions. In: SzantoTMoranD (Eds) The Phenomenology of Sociality: Discovering the ‘We.’ pp.263–277.
27.
LeungGMHoLMChanSK, et al. (2005) Longitudinal assessment of community psychobehavioral responses during and after the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Hong Kong. Clinical Infectious Diseases40(12): 1713–1720.
28.
LovibondPFLovibondSH (1995) The structure of negative emotional states: Comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck depression and anxiety inventories. Behaviour Research and Therapy33: 335–343.
29.
MaussIBCookCLChengJY, et al. (2007) Individual differences in cognitive reappraisal: Experiential and physiological responses to an anger provocation. International Journal of Psychophysiology66(2): 116–124.
30.
MinCShenFYuW, et al. (2020) The relationship between government trust and preventative behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic in China: Exploring the roles of knowledge and negative emotion. Preventive Medicine141: 106288.
OosterhoffBPalmerCA (2020) Psychological correlates of news monitoring, social distancing, disinfecting, and hoarding behaviours among US adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. PsyArXiv. DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/rpcy4.
36.
RossiRSocciVTaleviD, et al. (2020) COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures impact on mental health among the general population in Italy. Frontiers in Psychiatry11: 790.
37.
RuckerDDPreacherKJTormalaZL, et al. (2011) Mediation analysis in social psychology: Current practices and new recommendations. Social and Personality Psychology Compass5(6): 359–371.
38.
SibleyCGGreavesLMSatherleyN, et al. (2020) Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown on trust, attitudes towards government, and wellbeing. American Psychologist75(5): 618–630.
39.
SmithAMWillrothECGatchpazianA, et al. (2020) Coping with health threats: The costs and benefits of managing emotions. PsyArXiv. DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/dn957.
40.
SzabóM (2007) Do children differentiate worry from fear?Behaviour Change24(4): 195–204.
41.
TahaSAMathesonKAnismanH (2014) H1N1 was not all that scary: Uncertainty and stress appraisals predict anxiety related to a coming viral threat. Stress Health30: 149–157.
42.
TamirMJohnOPSrivastavaS, et al. (2007) Implicit theories of emotion: Affective and social outcomes across a major life transition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology92: 731–744.
43.
TroyASShallcrossAJMaussIB (2013) A person-by-situation approach to emotion regulation: Cognitive reappraisal can help or hurt, depending on the context. Psychological Science24(12): 2505–2514.
44.
van RooijBde BruijnALReinders FolmerC, et al. (2020) Compliance with COVID-19 mitigation measures in the United States. PsyArXiv. DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/qymu3.
45.
WangCPanRWanX, et al. (2020) Immediate psychological responses and associated factors during the initial stage of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic among the general population in China. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health17(1729): 1–25.
46.
WilsonEDonovanCVCampbellM, et al. (2020) Multiple COVID-19 clusters on a university campus—North Carolina, August 2020. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report69(39): 1416.
47.
World Health Organisation (2021) WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) dashboard. Available at: https://covid19.who.int/ (accessed 5 July 2021).
48.
ZebbBJBeckJG (1998) Worry versus anxiety: Is there really a difference?Behaviour Modification22(1): 45–61.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
