Resilience and Mental Health in Southwest Ohio During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During COVID-19, anxiety and depression rates spiked across the US and continued to climb after August 2020. Research from the early months of COVID-19 suggests that resilience and meaning and purpose were associated with positive mental health outcomes in this context. Little is understood about how this association persists after 5+ months of ongoing disaster exposure, as was the case for COVID-19. The goal was to examine this relationship in adults in Southwest Ohio.

Resilience, meaning-and-purpose, anxiety and depression symptom surveys were completed electronically between August 1 and November 30, 2020. Regression analyses examined relationships between these factors and sociodemographic variables.

Participants (N=98) reported anxiety and depression in mild ranges. Age was negatively associated with anxiety (p=.03). Meaning-and-purpose was negatively associated with both anxiety (p=.002) and depression (p<.001). Resilience was negatively associated with depression (p=.001). Further, reporting a mental health condition moderated the relationship between resilience and anxiety (p=.03), such that higher resilience was associated with higher anxiety in individuals reporting a mental health condition.

Our study found associations between anxiety and depression symptoms and both meaning-and-purpose and resilience. The moderated relationship between resilience and anxiety symptoms supports the importance of assessing mental health status, particularly during public health emergencies. Regardless of mental health status, higher meaning-and-purpose was associated with lower anxiety and depression. Additional research is needed to better understand the role of meaning-and-purpose and resilience during future public health challenges.