Anxiety symptoms and disorders in older adults are both prevalent and disabling. At the moment little is known about how age of onset of anxiety problems is related to the clinical characteristics...Show moreAnxiety symptoms and disorders in older adults are both prevalent and disabling. At the moment little is known about how age of onset of anxiety problems is related to the clinical characteristics of older adults. The current study aimed to explore clinical differences between older adults with early-onset (before the age of 50) anxiety problems and later-life onset (after the age of 50) anxiety problems. Differences in the severity and type of anxiety were assessed, as well as differences in health care use, quality of life, functional impairment, comorbid depressive complaints, comorbid somatic problems and positive mental health. This crosssectional study included 161 participants that experienced anxiety problems (aged 55-75). Multiple one-way ANOVAs were used to compare the early- and late-onset groups regarding clinical factors. A chi-square test, followed by a post-hoc z-test was performed to examine if certain types of anxiety more often had a late-onset. Results showed no significant differences in clinical factors between the early- and late-onset group. Generalized anxiety was significantly more often reported with a late-onset than early-onset (χ2 = 14.516, p = <.001) This finding underscores the need for further research on late-onset types of anxiety. Older adults with early vs. late-onset anxiety might differ on other clinical factors than those studied in the current article. Therefore, further research into potential similarities and differences between early- and late-onset groups should include a wide variety of clinical factors.Show less
Background. Anger is experienced in various mental disorders. Based on increased mental health problems in students and the adversity of the coronavirus pandemic, (1) the relations between anger,...Show moreBackground. Anger is experienced in various mental disorders. Based on increased mental health problems in students and the adversity of the coronavirus pandemic, (1) the relations between anger, depression, anxiety, stress, and being occupied with COVID-19 were explored. As traits predict interpersonal events and states identify events under situational control, it was investigated (2) if baseline trait anger predicted average state anger during a period of self-isolation to test if anger levels were determined by general tendencies, and (3) if trait and average state anger differed within and between men and women to test if the groups were affected differently by situational factors. Methods. (1) Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) data was collected from 79 undergraduates from Dutch universities, with surveys prompted via smartphone four times daily for 14 days. Contemporaneous, temporal, and between-subjects networks were computed. (2) In a multiple regression analysis, average EMA state anger was regressed on trait anger while controlling for gender, age, depression, anxiety, and stress. (3) A mixed-design analysis of covariance included standardized type of anger as a within-factor and gender as a between-factor while controlling for differences in mental health. Results. (1) Contemporaneously, anger was positively associated with irritability, feeling nervous and anhedonia. Temporally, anger and irritability positively predicted each other. Anger positively predicted difficulty to relax and itself. Between-subjects, anger was positively associated with irritability and feeling nervous but negatively with being occupied with COVID-19. (2) Trait anger did not significantly predict average EMA anger, whereas the covariate stress did. (3) Despite significantly lower trait anger compared to women, men displayed significantly increased average EMA anger in relation to their trait levels. Trait and average EMA anger did not differ within women. Conclusion. EMA anger was persistently related to stress, less likely to be the source or recipient of activation compared to other constructs, not strongly linked to trait, and increased in relation to trait levels only in the male group. Differences between our healthy participants and a clinical sample encourage an investigation of anger in phase transitions towards psychopathology and its potentially adaptive effects in healthy individuals.Show less
Background: It is well established that social contact is related to mental health. Previous research has shown that the quantity and quality of social interactions are associated with the...Show moreBackground: It is well established that social contact is related to mental health. Previous research has shown that the quantity and quality of social interactions are associated with the development, course and severity of mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression. Less is known about the psychological effects of social contact during a pandemic. Method: The current study investigates the dynamic associations among offline social interactions, depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms in undergraduates from a Dutch university (N=79; 75.95% female; MAge =20.37) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) was used for the data collection. A short online questionnaire was prompted via smartphone four times a day for two consecutive weeks. Multilevel vector autoregressive models were used for the network analysis and centrality indices were calculated. Results: We found significant dynamic associations among the duration of offline social contact and depression symptoms only. The absence of pleasure was associated with less offline social interactions, and vice versa. Having nothing to look forward to was predictive of less offline social contact three hours later. Social contact scored the lowest on centrality indices in our sample. Conclusion: Altogether, we found the duration of offline social contact to be partially related to mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results, strengths and limitations are discussed. Examining the dynamic associations among mental health and social contact can provide novel insights into the development and maintenance of mental health issues.Show less
