Coping behaviors and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: situational and habitual effects on mental distress with hybrid model analysis.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic brought about widespread mental health challenges. Yet, its mental health impacts vary depending on the coping strategies people adopt to manage stress. The COVID-19 pandemic, with its rapidly changing circumstances, provides an opportune context to examine how different coping behaviors are linked to mental distress. This study explores four coping approaches-social connection, substance use, social media use, and relaxation techniques-to assess how they relate to mental distress over time during the pandemic at both situational (within-person) and habitual (between-person) levels.

Methods: Using a hybrid model, this study analyzed longitudinal data from the Understanding American Study (UAS), spanning from April 2020 to June 2021. This approach allowed for differentiating between within-person (how changes in an individual's coping behaviors related to their own mental health over time) and between-person effects (how individuals with different coping behaviors, on average, compare in terms of mental health outcomes).

Results: Adaptive coping behaviors like social connection and relaxation coping were linked to lower mental distress at both within-person and between-person levels, with stronger between-person effects. Substance use and social media use were associated with increased mental distress, suggesting potential risks in their use, especially when these behaviors become habitual. Roughly 20-52.39% of the between-person effects of coping behaviors were explained by sociodemographic characteristics.

Conclusion: By recognizing the value of stable, adaptive coping habits-while also accounting for how situational changes impact well-being-policymakers and practitioners can craft more effective interventions to foster mental resilience during public health crises.