(PS5-B48) Psychological Impact of Adverse Life Events, Media Engagement, and Emotion Regulation on Medical and Allied Healthcare Graduate Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During COVID-19, many individuals experienced the loss of family and friends, and these events had a significant impact on mental health. Especially during the height of social isolation, people spent an inordinate amount of time listening to, reading, and watching pandemic-related events. In addition to direct exposure to traumatic events, repeated indirect extreme exposure to details of traumatic event(s) as it occurs to others can lead to symptoms of traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression. Questions that remain include the potential impact these direct and indirect exposures may have had on medical and health science graduate students in NYC during COVID; and the degree to which deficits in emotion regulation may have contributed to distress vulnerability among this population. This study included 292 medical/health science graduate students in NYC. Measures included demographic data, adverse life events directly related to COVID-19, frequency of media engagement during the pandemic, and multiple measures of psychological distress. Of the sample, 38% had a family member or close friend hospitalized and 24% of the sample experienced the death of a family member/close friend. Fifty percent (50%) of the sample reported that a member of their family had lost their job or had been furloughed. Further, 36% spent a considerable amount of time watching, reading, or hearing about details of the experiences of front-line health workers, 43% reported a moderate amount of time, and 21% reported little or no time spent watching, reading, or hearing about details of the experiences of front-line health workers. In the first regression analyses (GAD-7 as the outcome variable), the DERS-Total accounted for 31.4% of the variance (Adjusted R2 = .314) and was the only significant predictor variable (F(1,315) = 134.73, p < .001), with a moderate effect size of .56. A follow up model in which media engagement was added was also significant (F(2,314) = 70.61, p < .001), adding an additional 1.1% of the variance (R2 change = .011). The DERS-Total had a moderate effect size of .55 and media engagement had a very small effect size of .11. In the second analyses, COVID-19 adverse life events, media engagement, and the DERS were entered, with PHQ-9 scores (depression) as the dependent variable. One model, which included only the DERS-Total was significant (F(1,303) = 221.74, p < .001), and explained 43.1% of the variance (Adjusted R2 = .431). This model had a moderate effect size of .66. In the third analysis with PC-PTSD-5 scores as the dependent measure, the DERS-Total score was entered, and was significant (F(2,290) = 56.92, p < .001). It added 26.6% additional explained variance (R2 change = .266). In this model, the DERS had a moderate .52 effect size. In a follow up, hospitalization of family/friend and loss of family/friend were entered. This model was significant (F(4,288) = 28.38, p < .0001), added 0.1% of the explained variance (R2 change = .001), and had small .03 and .01 effect sizes respectively, while DERS had a moderate .52 effect size. While adverse life events and frequency of media engagement had a small but significant impact on psychological distress, by far the most impactful predictor of psychological distress was difficulties in emotion regulation.