Mental Health, Relationships, and Coping during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Background and Purpose: For nearly all Americans, daily life was significantly disrupted due to Covid-19. Social distancing results in less support from friends, neighbors, and loved ones. This study examines alcohol use, marijuana use, anxiety, depression and relationship functioning during the pandemic.

Methods: Data were collected via an online survey that was administered through a research firm early in the pandemic. Participants (N = 562) were adults throughout the U.S. Couples relationship functioning analyses were restricted to participants who were in a current romantic relationship (n = 415). Increased alcohol use was measured by, “Have you consumed alcohol more than usual during the Covid-19 global health crisis?” (0=no, 1=yes). The same question was asked to measure increased marijuana use. Anxiety was measured with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7). Depression was measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8). Participants reported whether they and their partners in the past 2 weeks: “had disagreements related to the Coronavirus,” “had more disagreements than usual,” “had more verbal fights than usual,” and “had more physical fights than usual,” on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The 10-item Dyadic Coping Inventory (alpha = .85) measured coping that occurs when one or both partners are stressed. All analyses controlled for sociodemographic characteristics including employment change due to Covid-19. Regression analyses were conducted in Mplus using full-information maximum likelihood estimation.

Results: 22% of respondents were using alcohol more than usual and 1 in 7 were using marijuana more than usual since the pandemic started. Symptoms of depression and anxiety were remarkably high. About 32% of respondents had symptoms that would indicate major depression. Over 50% of respondents had symptoms that would indicate mild, moderate, or severe anxiety. 22% of respondents in a romantic relationship reported having disagreements with their partner related to the Coronavirus, 19% reported more disagreements than usual, and 15% reported more verbal fights than usual.

Multivariate regression models indicated that increased alcohol use was associated with having disagreements related to the Coronavirus (𝛃= .14, p < .01). Increased alcohol and marijuana use were associated with having more disagreements in general (alcohol: 𝛃 = .20, p < .001; marijuana: 𝛃 = .15, p < .05) and more verbal fights than usual (alcohol: 𝛃 = .21, p < .001; marijuana: 𝛃 = .14, p < .05). Anxiety and depression were significantly associated with lower dyadic coping (anxiety: 𝛃 = -.21, p < .001; depression: 𝛃 = -.24, p < .001). Anxiety and depression were also significantly associated at the p < 05 level or lower with all of the relationship variables: disagreements related to the Coronavirus, having more disagreements than usual, having more verbal fights than usual, and having more physical fights than usual.

Conclusions and Implications: Covid-19 may contribute to an increase in mental health problems, alcohol/marijuana use/abuse, and poorer couple functioning. As the pandemic continues and disruptions to daily life worsen, mental health professionals need to be prepared for an increase in mental health and substance use problems.