Interactions among stress, behavioral inhibition, and delta-beta coupling predict adolescent anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about unprecedented changes and uncertainty to the daily lives of youth. The range of adjustment in light of a near-universal experience of COVID restrictions highlights the importance of identifying factors that may render some individuals more susceptible to heightened levels of anxiety during stressful life events than others. Two risk factors to consider are temperamental behavioral inhibition (BI) and difficulties in emotion regulation (ER). As such, the current paper focused on BI examined prior to COVID, because of its developmental link to anxiety and ER, as difficulties may be associated with differences in anxiety. We examined a neurocognitive marker of ER processes, delta-beta coupling (DBC). The current paper had two goals: (1) to examine BI in relation to COVID-related worry and social anxiety experienced during the pandemic, and (2) to explore the role of individual differences in early DBC in the relationship between BI and anxiety outcomes 6 months apart during COVID-19 (n = 86; T1 M_age = 15.95, SD = 1.73; T6 M_age = 16.43, SD = 1.73). We found support for the moderating role of DBC in the relationship between BI levels and social anxiety disorder (SAD) symptom severity during the pandemic. Here, high BI was predictive of increased SAD symptom levels in adolescents with stronger DBC.

Keywords: COVID-19; adolescents; anxiety; behavioral inhibition; delta-beta coupling; emotion regulation.

Figure 1. Study Timeline

Note. DBC = Delta beta coupling; BI = Behavioral inhibition; WHO = World Health Organization; Pre-COVID = collected prior to COVID-19 onset; T1 = timepoint 1, when initial surveys were sent out; T2-T5 = timepoints 2 through 5 surveys sent ~1 month apart; T6 = timepoint 6, final survey sent ~6 months after T1.

Figure 2. The interaction between Pre-COVID BI and parietal DBC predicting social anxiety symptomology during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic

Note. DBC = Delta-beta coupling; BIQ = Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire; BI = Behavioral inhibition; Pre-COVID = collected prior to COVID-19 onset; T1 = timepoint 1; DBC = Delta-beta Coupling; SD = Standard deviation; SAD = The Social Anxiety subscale from the SCARED.

Figure 3. The interaction between Pre-COVID BI and parietal DBC in predicting social anxiety symptomology during the COVID-19 pandemic

Note. DBC = Delta-beta coupling; BIQ = Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire; BI = Behavioral inhibition; Pre-COVID = collected prior to COVID-19 onset; T6 = timepoint 6; SD = Standard deviation; SAD = Social anxiety subscale scores from the SCARED.

Figure 4. The Johnson-Neyman graph for the moderation effect of Pre-COVID parietal DBC on the association between Pre-COVID BI and levels of social anxiety during the pandemic (T6)

Notice the effect of Pre-COVID BI on T6 social anxiety symptomology is only significant for high levels of coupling. For any values of the moderator for which the confidence bands contain 0, the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable is not significant. Note. DBC = Delta-beta coupling; BI = Behavioral inhibition Questionnaire; Pre-COVID = collected prior to COVID-19 onset; T6 = timepoint 6; SAD = social anxiety disorder subscale scores form the SCARED.