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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic was characterized by global increases in depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. Previous studies have shown that resilience mitigates these symptoms, however there is limited research exploring the link between resilience and mental illness during the COVID-19 pandemic in Central America. Objective: To examine the role of resilience as it relates to the perceived effect of the pandemic on mental health symptoms. Methods: A sample of 480 adults in Panama were recruited from March to May 2021 to complete an online survey. The online survey consisted of sociodemographic questions and scale measures assessing depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, resilience, and social support. Results: Results indicated that resilience mediated the relationship between the perceived effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and mental health symptoms; participants who felt more personally affected by the pandemic reported more depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms via decreased resilience. Further analyses revealed that resilience was moderated by sex and social support, showing that the indirect effect of resilience was greater for women and individuals who perceived low social support. Discussion: These findings contribute to a growing body of research documenting the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and reveal potential mechanisms through which pandemic-related distress decreases resilience, thereby increasing symptoms of mental illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Studies show that the release from jail is a vulnerable transition for individuals with opioid use disorder re-entering their communities. Less is known about individuals with co-occurring mental health and opioid use disorders (COD), particularly their specific needs following release. Objectives. To describe the needs of people with COD within two weeks of release jail. Methods. Baseline data from 155 individuals with COD were collected within two weeks of release from jail across 9 counties in Massachusetts. Univariate analyses were conducted to determine baseline needs. Results. The majority of participants were male (78.7%), White (64.5%), and non-Hispanic (75.5%). The most relevant needs among participants were employment (88.4% were unemployed), opioid overdose prevention (67.7% had at least one non-fatal opioid overdose), mental health symptoms (participants reported anxiety or tension an average of 8.9 days in the past 30 days), and trauma support/treatment (71.6% reported at least one traumatic event in their lifetime). Conclusions. Individuals with COD re-entering their communities have critical needs that must be addressed upon release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positive reappraisal has been shown to be a generally effective emotion regulation strategy associated with multiple indices of greater psychological functioning. There are, however, some emotion-eliciting events, such as discrimination, that may not lend themselves to favorable alternative interpretations or which have relatively fewer affordances. In such instances, a reappraisal strategy could lose its effectiveness. We conducted an experimental test of this hypothesized ineffectiveness of positive reappraisal within a discriminatory context. Participants were 404 Black and Latine college students randomly assigned to imagine being the recipient of a rude or discriminatory comment and immediately afterward were asked to either ruminate about or positively reappraise the event. Overall, positive reappraisal was more effective than rumination in downregulating anxiety and anger. However, a single- df contrast test revealed that positive reappraisal in response to the rude comment was significantly more effective in reducing anxiety relative to the other three conditions (average of positive reappraisal of the discriminatory comment or rumination to either the rude or discriminatory comment). Additional analyses also showed that oppressed minority ideology (OMI) moderated the utility of anger regulation such that, for those lower on OMI, positive reappraisal was most effective in regulating anger in response to discrimination (compared to all other conditions), but among those higher on OMI, rumination and reappraisal to discrimination were equally effective. Results suggest that the effectiveness of positive reappraisal is lessened in a discrimination context and that more robust strategies may be needed to deal with the emotional fallout from this unique stressor. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).