ArticleJournal of affective disorders2022
The trajectories of anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic and the protective role of psychological flexibility: A four-wave longitudinal study.
Article in Journal of affective disorders, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Associations between psychological inflexibility and mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic: A three-level meta-analytic review.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Pooled it
- Suicidality, Psychological Inflexibility, and Emotional Resilience Among Black College Students.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Analysis of COVID-19-Related Influencing Variables and Post-Traumatic Growth Differences Depending on the Type of Depressive Symptoms Using Latent Profile Analysis.Psychiatry investigation · 2026Article
- Effect of Psychological Inflexibility and Cancer-Related Dysfunctional Beliefs About Sleep on the Relationship Between Depression and Fear of Progression in Patients with Cancer.The Psychiatric quarterly · 2026Article
- Disentangling Heterogeneity in the Co-Developmental of Anxiety and Depression During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights From Cross-Lagged Panel Network.Depression and anxiety · 2026Article
- Perceived stress and depression among Chinese nurses: a cross-sectional mediation analysis of psychological flexibility and its components.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Depression, anxiety, and stress among adults in Kuwait across pre- and post-vaccine phases of the COVID-19 pandemic: a repeated cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- A Transdiagnostic Approach in Psychodiagnosis: The Romanian Adaptation of the Process-Based Assessment Tool (PBAT).Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Psychological analysis of depression, anxiety, and quality of life in postoperative thyroid cancer patients: a narrative review.Thyroid research · 2025Review
- The dynamic association between depression, psychological flexibility, and meaning in life among medical students: a cross-lagged analysis.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Fluctuating recovery: Trajectories of young adult mental health through the COVID-19 pandemic 2020-2022.Journal of affective disorders · 2025Article
- Associations of psychological flexibility, mindfulness, and valued living with psychological distress among nursing students.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Effect of Childhood Trauma on Emotional Distress: A Chain-Mediated Effects of Alexithymia and Psychological Flexibility.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Emotional regulation and coping strategies predicted trajectories of anxiety across the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of mental health (Abingdon, England) · 2025Article
- The relationship between safety measures, preparedness, and mental health outcomes in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Psychological and relational adjustment under stress: the mediating role of emotion regulation in parents' functioning during the COVID-19 crisis.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Psychological Well-Being in Adults Across the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Two-Year Longitudinal Study.International journal of public health · 2025Article
- Stress management: how does the academic staff cope with it? a cross-sectional study at the university of Udine.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Personality and Pain Outcomes in Rheumatic Disease: The Mediating Role of Psychological Flexibility.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The effect of yin yoga intervention on state and trait anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPublished reports on the adverse mental health impacts of the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic suggest an emerging global mental health crisis. However, the trajectories of these mental health impacts over multiple COVID-19 peaks and corresponding lockdowns are unknown. This study explored the trajectories of anxiety and depression over two consecutive lockdowns during the first nine months of the pandemic in Europe (April 2020-January 2021) and examined whether they varied as a function of different psychological flexibility and inflexibility profiles.
methodsA total of 569 Italians completed online surveys at four assessment points. Trajectories of anxiety and depression were examined with latent growth modeling and according to different psychological flexibility and inflexibility profiles.
resultsAnxiety increased linearly throughout the study period, whereas depression displayed a quadratic trajectory evidencing a decrease with the easing of the first lockdown followed by an increase during the second lockdown. Furthermore, two profiles were identified that displayed different anxiety and depression trajectories. Compared to the psychologically flexible profile, the psychologically inflexible profile reported significantly higher anxiety and depression which remained higher across the study period. LIMITATIONS: A reliance on self-report measures and convenience sampling constitute key study limitations.
conclusionsResults suggest that high psychological inflexibility is a risk factor for prolonged elevated anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas high psychological flexibility is a protective factor. Psychological flexibility and inflexibility should be targeted by preventive public health interventions that harness evidence-based strategies shown to effectively target these factors.
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