Emotional and Behavioral Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Health Anxiety, Intolerance of Uncertainty, and Distress (In)Tolerance

Karoline S. Sauer, Stefanie M. Jungmann and Michael Witthöft
Additional contact information
Karoline S. Sauer: Department of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Experimental Psychopathology, Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Wallstraße 3, 55122 Mainz, Germany
Stefanie M. Jungmann: Department of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Experimental Psychopathology, Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Wallstraße 3, 55122 Mainz, Germany
Michael Witthöft: Department of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Experimental Psychopathology, Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Wallstraße 3, 55122 Mainz, Germany

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 19, 1-18

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic represents a worldwide threat to mental health. To optimize the allocation of health care resources, research on specific vulnerability factors, such as health anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, and distress (in)tolerance, and particularly their effect on the time course of SARS-CoV-2 related anxiety appears crucial for supporting high risk groups suffering from elevated mental distress during the pandemic. N = 887 participants (78.4% female; M age = 38.15, SD = 17.04) completed an online survey in Germany (April to mid-May 2020), comprising measures of SARS-CoV-2 related anxiety, health anxiety, safety and preventive behavior, intolerance of uncertainty, and distress intolerance. Higher levels of health anxiety pre and during COVID-19 were associated with an initially intensified increase ( b = 1.10, p < 0.001), but later on a more rapid dampening ( b = −0.18, p < 0.001) of SARS-CoV-2 related anxiety. SARS-CoV-2 related preventive behavior was intensified by both pre ( b = 0.06, p = 0.01) and during ( b = 0.15, p < 0.001) COVID-19 health anxiety, while reassurance behavior only was associated with health anxiety during COVID-19 ( b = 0.14, p < 0.001). Distress intolerance and intolerance of uncertainty did not moderate the relationship between health anxiety and SARS-CoV-2 related anxiety and behavior. The results suggest detrimental effects of health anxiety on the emotional and behavioral response to virus outbreaks.

Keywords: Covid-19; virus anxiety; safety behaviors; health anxiety; intolerance of uncertainty; distress tolerance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7241/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7241/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:19:p:7241-:d:423437

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().