(PS2-C52) The Role of Active Coping in the Relationship Between Social Loneliness and Depression

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people worldwide and is associated with an increase in mental health concerns. Social isolation precipitated by quarantine is also associated with loneliness and depression. Individuals have coped with these concerns in different ways. While some people utilized positive coping strategies to alleviate their symptoms (Zhang et al., 2021), others utilized maladaptive coping methods and experienced worsened psychosocial outcomes and depression (Minahan et al., 2020). Further research is needed to understand the effects of specific kinds of coping and their relationship to depression and loneliness.

This current study investigated whether active coping mediates the relationship between social loneliness and depression. Participants (N=302, Mean Age=20.3, 78.7% female, 80.5% White, 6.7% Asian, 6.0% Black) were recruited via university listservs and social media and completed self-reported measures assessing psychological and emotional wellbeing, such as the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale, and Brief-COPE. Analyses were conducted using SPSS PROCESS macro (Model 4), which utilized listwise deletion to address missing data.

The overall model was found to be significant, F(1, 300)=27.44, p< .001, R2=.084, accounting for 8% of the variance. The path from social loneliness to active coping was significant (b=-.19, p< .001), indicating that higher levels of social loneliness were associated with lower levels of active coping. Additionally, the path from active coping to depression was significant (b=-.14, p< .05), indicating that higher levels of active coping were associated with lower levels of depression. Finally, the path from social loneliness to depression was significant (b=.26, p< 0.001), indicating that higher levels of social loneliness were associated with higher levels of depression and demonstrating partial mediation.

These results advance the current understanding of the relationship between loneliness and depression, demonstrating that the use of active coping strategies partially explains the relationship between individuals’ social loneliness and symptoms of depression. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the importance of developing and disseminating interventions that target effective coping strategies, especially during times of difficulty such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research should explore other coping mechanisms that may impact the relationship between social loneliness and depression.