People who were able to have steady and stable coping mechanisms throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic were less likely to experience depression and anxiety, according to a new study in The Annals of Family Medicine.
The study, conducted via Veterans Affairs health services, was based on more than 2,000 participants who completed three online surveys during the period when COVID-19 vaccines were widely available but restrictions were still in place across much of the United States (December 2 to 27, 2020; January 21 to February 6, 2021; and March 8 to 23, 2021).
The questionnaire asked participants about their use of 11 coping strategies and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Coping strategies ranged from using humor and distraction to denial and planning.
Most people changed coping strategies
The authors said a total of 2,085 participants (50.8% veterans) completed the questionnaire at one or more time points, and 930 participants (62.8% veterans) completed it at all three time points. In responses, researchers identified three coping strategies: adaptive, distressed, and disengaged.
Seventy-one percent of participants changed their coping strategy across the three different survey periods, the authors said. The most common coping style during the first two questionnaires was the disengagement (used by 50.3% and 59.6% of participants, respectively), whereas the most common style during the final survey was adaptive coping (used by 46.0%).
Over our study’s time window, 4 months of a rapidly evolving context for the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in coping style were common.
"Over our study’s time window, 4 months of a rapidly evolving context for the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in coping style were common," the authors wrote. "Participants who did not change coping style across time (the stable group) were less depressed and anxious than those who did change styles."
The protection against anxiety and depression existed even if the coping strategies were not adaptive, the authors said.