ArticleJournal of traumatic stress2025
Psychological distress across 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic differs by age and by race/ethnicity.
Article in Journal of traumatic stress, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Changes in mental health outcomes of middle-aged and older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review.PloS one · 2026Article
- Psychological distress across 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic differs by age and by race/ethnicity.Journal of traumatic stress · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted mental health, with psychological distress varying across age and racial/ethnic groups. This study examined trajectories of five distress measures-symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTS), anxiety, depression, anger, and somatization-over the first 2 years of the pandemic, adjusting for prepandemic mental health. Participants in a nationally representative, probability-based U.S. sample (N = 4,298, age range: 18-97 years) completed four online surveys from March 2020 to June 2022. Multilevel models revealed that symptom levels and changes over time varied by age group across outcomes. Across time, PTS and anxiety symptoms declined for most age groups at different rates, F(6, 85,660) = 6.21, p < .001. Younger adults initially reported higher PTS symptom levels at Wave 1, Bs = 0.10-0.14, p < .001, but levels converged across age groups by Wave 4. Rates of anxiety symptoms were similar across age groups at Wave 4 except for older adults, who reported significantly lower levels. Depressive symptoms and anger increased in the initial waves but declined by Wave 4, Bs = -0.25-0.02, p < .001. For all participants, somatization increased after Wave 1, B = -0.30, p < .001, and never returned to initial levels, B = -0.04, p < .001. Additionally, somatization was the only symptom with similar levels across age groups at each wave. Across race/ethnicity, Hispanic adults reported higher distress and less decline over time. Findings highlight distinct symptom trajectories across the pandemic, with generally lower distress levels among the oldest adults.
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Registered trials
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