Category: Disaster Mental Health
Aaron Heller, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Miami
Coral Gables, Florida
Dylan Gee, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
Daniel Pine, M.D.
Senior Investigator
National Institute of Mental Health
Bethesda, Maryland
Aaron Heller, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Miami
Coral Gables, Florida
Rebecca Waller, D. Phil., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Stefanie Sequeira, PhD
Graduate Student
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Elizabeth Kitt, B.S.
Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
Due to the stay-at-home mandates, social isolation, and uncertain threats, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered our everyday experience. Emerging evidence suggests that the psychological and behavioral impacts of the pandemic may be particularly pronounced in adolescence, a time of dramatic neurobiological development. Applying cutting-edge affective science research and theory to understand the neural and behavioral mechanisms by which the pandemic impacted development is critical to better respond to health emergencies and syndemics such as this.
This symposium integrates novel, basic clinical and affective science demonstrating the neural and behavioral impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth across internalizing and externalizing spectra. Using longitudinal, prospective data in large samples of both children and adolescents, talks in this symposium demonstrate the substantial changes in positive and negative emotion, GPS-measured exploration, anxiety, and depression as the COVID-19 pandemic started. Data from these cutting-edge methods demonstrate that internalizing symptoms and negative emotion increased during the pandemic, which was paralleled by decreases in positive emotion and diversity of daily experiences.
However, despite the globally pernicious effects of COVID-19 on mental health and behavior, there were also clear mechanisms that buffered the pandemic’s impact. Family and social factors, as well as daily experiential diversity (i.e., going to new and diverse spaces) all buffered the mental health impact of COVID-19. For instance, parent-child connections, as evidenced via self-report and parental modulation of amygdala reactivity in children, predicted better mental health outcomes in children. Higher levels of peer social connection similarly buffered the affective impact of the pandemic. Lastly, days of greater real-world experiential diversity and maintenance of daily positive affect also appeared to protect affective well-being.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant and widespread impact on affective well-being for humans world-wide, with a particular impact on children and adolescents. However, the lessons to be learned may be how humans successfully coped during this unprecedented time. The ability to connect to family and friends, and to have novel and diverse and positive experiences, may have been some of the mechanisms that protected mental health. As a field, we should carefully consider how to maximize these mechanisms going forward.
Presenter: Aaron Heller, Ph.D. – University of Miami
Co-author: Aaron Heller, Ph.D. – University of Miami
Presenter: Rebecca Waller, D. Phil., Ph.D. – University of Pennsylvania
Co-author: Rebecca Waller, D. Phil., Ph.D. – University of Pennsylvania
Presenter: Stefanie Sequeira, PhD – University of Pittsburgh
Co-author: Jennifer Silk, Ph.D. – University of Pittsburgh, Department of Psychology
Co-author: Emily Hutchinson, B.S. – University of Pittsburgh
Co-author: Neil Jones, Ph.D. – University of Pittsburgh
Co-author: Cecile Ladouceur, Ph.D. – University of Pittsburgh, Department Of Psychiatry
Presenter: Elizabeth R. Kitt, B.S. – Yale University
Co-author: Emily Cohodes, M.S., M.Phil. – Yale University
Co-author: Sarah McCauley, PhD – Yale University
Co-author: Grace Hommel, B.S. – Yale Child Study Center
Co-author: Cristina Nardini, PhD – Yale University
Co-author: Sadie Zacharek, B.S. – Yale University
Co-author: Alyssa Martino, MS, SYC – Yale University
Co-author: Tess Anderson, PhD – Yale University
Co-author: Hannah Spencer, MSc – Yale University
Co-author: Paola Odriozola, PhD – Yale University
Co-author: Georgia Spurrier, PhD – Yale University
Co-author: Alexis Broussard, PhD – Yale University
Co-author: Carla Marin, Ph.D. – Yale University
Co-author: Wendy Silverman, PhD – Yale Child Study Center, School of Medicine, Yale University
Co-author: Eli Lebowitz, PhD – Yale Child Study Center, School of Medicine, Yale University
Co-author: Dylan Gee, Ph.D. – Yale University