COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs: Relations with anxiety, quality of life, and schemas.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a worldwide mental health crisis. Conspiracy beliefs regarding the origin of COVID-19 are prevalent, however, mental health consequences and factors associated with the likelihood of endorsing COVID-19 conspiracy theories have not yet been examined. The current study examined predictors and mental health consequences of conspiracy beliefs. METHODS: Participants in Canada and the United States were surveyed via Amazon Mechanical Turk in April 2020 (N = 797), approximately one month after the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and again in May 2020 (N = 395). RESULTS: Approximately half of the sample (49.7%) believed at least one conspiracy theory. Greater Covid-19 conspiracy beliefs were associated with more anxiety at follow up but not quality of life. Religiosity/spirituality, not knowing someone at high-risk for COVID-19, and non-white ethnicity were associated with greater conspiracy beliefs. Lower positive other-schemas were associated with greater conspiracy beliefs, only at low and moderate levels of positive self-schemas. CONCLUSIONS: There is substantial conspiracy belief endorsement during the COVID-19 pandemic and conspiracy beliefs are associated with anxiety, but not quality of life. Positive self-schemas protect against believing conspiracy theories and interventions to increase positive self-schemas may be effective to reduce the negative effects of conspiracy beliefs.

Information seeking and health anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of catastrophic cognitions.

Cognitive-behavioural models of health anxiety propose a positive association between information seeking and health anxiety; however, it is unclear the extent to which cognitive mechanisms may mediate this relationship. Catastrophic cognitions are one type of cognition that may mediate this relationship, and the COVID-19 pandemic has presented an opportunity to examine these relationships within the context of a global health catastrophe. The current study investigated both cross-sectional (N = 797) and longitudinal (n = 395) relationships between information seeking, health anxiety and catastrophizing during the pandemic. Data were collected using Amazon Mechanical Turk during April and May 2020. Information seeking and health anxiety were positively associated both cross-sectionally and longitudinally (rs = .25-.29). Catastrophic cognitions significantly mediated the relationship between information seeking and health anxiety both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Developing effective methods of reducing information seeking and catastrophizing may serve to reduce health anxiety during global health crises such as the current pandemic.

Predictors and consequences of loneliness during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a global context in which social isolation has become normative in order to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. As a result of social distancing policies, the risk for loneliness and associated decline in quality of life has increased. The current study examined factors associated with loneliness and quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic cross-sectionally (n = 797) and longitudinally (n = 395). Older age and larger social network size were associated with less loneliness, whereas having multiple physical or mental health diagnoses was associated with greater loneliness. Greater virtual social contact was also associated with increased loneliness. Greater loneliness was associated with all domains of quality of life both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Understanding factors associated with loneliness is critical to developing effective strategies at reducing loneliness and improving quality of life during the pandemic. Contrary to popular perceptions, older age was associated with less loneliness and more virtual social contact was associated with more loneliness. Thus, it may be prudent to deemphasize virtual social contact in public campaigns and to emphasize safe methods of interacting in person.