JMIR Mental Health (Oct 2023)

Psychological Resilience Factors and Their Association With Weekly Stressor Reactivity During the COVID-19 Outbreak in Europe: Prospective Longitudinal Study

  • Sophie A Bögemann,
  • Lara M C Puhlmann,
  • Carolin Wackerhagen,
  • Matthias Zerban,
  • Antje Riepenhausen,
  • Göran Köber,
  • Kenneth S L Yuen,
  • Shakoor Pooseh,
  • Marta A Marciniak,
  • Zala Reppmann,
  • Aleksandra Uściƚko,
  • Jeroen Weermeijer,
  • Dionne B Lenferink,
  • Julian Mituniewicz,
  • Natalia Robak,
  • Nina C Donner,
  • Merijn Mestdagh,
  • Stijn Verdonck,
  • Rolf van Dick,
  • Birgit Kleim,
  • Klaus Lieb,
  • Judith M C van Leeuwen,
  • Dorota Kobylińska,
  • Inez Myin-Germeys,
  • Henrik Walter,
  • Oliver Tüscher,
  • Erno J Hermans,
  • Ilya M Veer,
  • Raffael Kalisch

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2196/46518
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10
p. e46518

Abstract

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BackgroundCross-sectional relationships between psychosocial resilience factors (RFs) and resilience, operationalized as the outcome of low mental health reactivity to stressor exposure (low “stressor reactivity” [SR]), were reported during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. ObjectiveExtending these findings, we here examined prospective relationships and weekly dynamics between the same RFs and SR in a longitudinal sample during the aftermath of the first wave in several European countries. MethodsOver 5 weeks of app-based assessments, participants reported weekly stressor exposure, mental health problems, RFs, and demographic data in 1 of 6 different languages. As (partly) preregistered, hypotheses were tested cross-sectionally at baseline (N=558), and longitudinally (n=200), using mixed effects models and mediation analyses. ResultsRFs at baseline, including positive appraisal style (PAS), optimism (OPT), general self-efficacy (GSE), perceived good stress recovery (REC), and perceived social support (PSS), were negatively associated with SR scores, not only cross-sectionally (baseline SR scores; all P<.001) but also prospectively (average SR scores across subsequent weeks; positive appraisal (PA), P=.008; OPT, P<.001; GSE, P=.01; REC, P<.001; and PSS, P=.002). In both associations, PAS mediated the effects of PSS on SR (cross-sectionally: 95% CI –0.064 to –0.013; prospectively: 95% CI –0.074 to –0.0008). In the analyses of weekly RF-SR dynamics, the RFs PA of stressors generally and specifically related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and GSE were negatively associated with SR in a contemporaneous fashion (PA, P<.001; PAC,P=.03; and GSE, P<.001), but not in a lagged fashion (PA, P=.36; PAC, P=.52; and GSE, P=.06). ConclusionsWe identified psychological RFs that prospectively predict resilience and cofluctuate with weekly SR within individuals. These prospective results endorse that the previously reported RF-SR associations do not exclusively reflect mood congruency or other temporal bias effects. We further confirm the important role of PA in resilience.