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. 2021 May:137:311-318.
doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.03.004. Epub 2021 Mar 11.

Worry about COVID-19 contagion and general anxiety: Moderation and mediation effects of cognitive emotion regulation

Roger Muñoz-Navarro  1 , Elisabeth Malonda  2 , Anna Llorca-Mestre  3 , Antonio Cano-Vindel  4 , Pablo Fernández-Berrocal  5
Affiliations

Worry about COVID-19 contagion and general anxiety: Moderation and mediation effects of cognitive emotion regulation

Roger Muñoz-Navarro et al. J Psychiatr Res. 2021 May.

Abstract

The global pandemic caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) occasioned that most of the population in Spain was confined to home to reduce the risk of contagion. This affected mental health, increasing anxiety and worry about COVID-19 contagion. The aim of this study was assessing the moderation and mediation effect of cognitive emotion regulation strategies (CERS) on general anxiety and whether the mediation effect was moderated by gender and/or age. A total of 1753 Spanish adults (78,6% female; M = 40.4 years, SD = 12.9) participated in an online survey that was available from March 26 to April 25 (2020) during the time period in which the population in Spain was confined. Participants completed measures of worry about COVID-19 contagion, the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire-Short (CERQ-Short) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7). Several models were tested through structural equation modelling. Moderation analyses reported that maladaptive strategies moderated positively anxiety, whereas adaptive strategies moderated negatively anxiety. Also, the best fitted mediation model found that worry about COVID-19 contagion and general anxiety was mediated by CERS in different directions. Maladaptive CERS increased anxiety, whereas adaptive CERS reduced anxiety. Age (not gender) also moderated this mediation, were younger adults presented an indirect effect only through maladaptive CERS, but older adults through both adaptive and maladaptive. Limitations are related to the study design which was a convenience sample. CERS moderated and mediated between worry about COVID-19 contagion and general anxiety. Prevention programs for mental health problems during the pandemic must be provided, especially for younger adults.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cognitive emotion regulation; General anxiety; Mediation; Moderation; Worry.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Hypothetical models.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Path of the mediation model across the whole sample. Significant indirect effects are shown in bold.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Path of the mediation model moderated by age across young people (<40 years). Significant indirect effects are shown in bold.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Path of the mediation model moderated by age across older people (≥40 years). Significant indirect effects are given in bold text.
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