(PS2-C63) Social Support as a Predictor of Internalizing Symptom Change During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Social support has been implicated as an important buffering factor for mental health, especially during times of stress. However, the nature of the associations between social support and symptoms of depression and anxiety during a time of acute stress, versus the extent to which social support predicts within-person changes in internalizing symptoms over time, are less well-understood. The present study recruited undergraduate and graduate students to a study performed in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, and assessed the relationship between social support and anxiety and depression during a time of acute stress.

Participants (N=298) were University of Colorado Boulder undergraduate and graduate students, and ranged from ages 18 to 38. Throughout the eight weeks, participants completed a biweekly battery of surveys evaluating levels of depression, anxiety, social support, stress, and related constructs. The Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire was used to assess internalizing symptom change, with the Loss of Interest and Anxious Arousal subscales measuring symptoms of depression and anxiety, respectively. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support was used to assess social support at baseline. Regression analyses tested the baseline associations between social support and severity of depressive symptoms or symptoms of anxiety during a period of acute stress. Mixed effects models tested associations between social support at baseline and changes in severity of symptoms of depression or anxiety over the eight-week study period.

Results showed a significant relationship between social support and both severity of anxiety and of depression at baseline. However, although there were significant decreases in severity of symptoms of anxiety and depression over time across the sample, baseline social support did not moderate these symptom improvements over time.

Together, this study indicated that participants’ levels of social support during a period of life stress predicted differences between people in depression and anxiety, but failed to predict future changes in depression and anxiety over time. These findings may suggest that the association between social support and mental health is more trait-like, characterizing differences between people but not fluctuations in psychiatric symptoms within people. Alternately, social support may itself have state-like associations with psychiatric symptoms, e.g., fluctuations in social support corresponding with fluctuations in symptoms. Future studies may distinguish these interpretations.