Stop talking about it already! Co-ruminating and social media focused on COVID-19 was associated with heightened state anxiety, depressive symptoms, and perceived changes in health anxiety during Spring 2020

Table 1 Sample characteristics and bivariate associations with current mental health

Demographics	Range	Mean	SD		CESD	STAI	HAI
Age	18–73	32.22	11.95	r	− .23***	− .15**	− 0.10
Gender, n (%)
Woman		280	81%	t	0.25	1.14	0.73
Man		56	16%
Trans/Queer		9	3%
Race, n (%)
White		302	87%	t	− 0.87	− 0.55	− 0.98
Black		9	3%
Asian		11	3%
Native American or Pacific Islander		1	< 1%
Multi-racial		14	4%
Other		7	2%
Student, n (%)		112	33%	t	3.04**	1.63	0.80
Marital Status
Single		162	47%	t	− 3.07**	− 1.53	− 1.96*
Married		127	37%
Living w. partner		39	11%
Div/Sep/W		17	5%
Living in home	0–9	2.04	1.38	r	.04	.01	− .08
Income (k)	0–750	91.33	77.25	r	− .19**	− .05	− .08
Financial Health	1–5	2.57	1.16	r	.32***	.34***	.15**
Employment
Full-time		162	47%	ρ	− .17**	− .07	− .02
Part-time		89	26%
Unemployed		59	17%
Service Industry		25	7%
Retired		8	2%
Pay status (n = 301)
Full wages		200	67%	ρ	− .14*	− .12*	0.03
Partial wages or PTO		26	9%
Filed unemploymt/no wages		72	24%

For analyses the following variables were categorized: Gender: male (0) female (1). Race: white (0) non-white (1). Student: no (0), yes (1). Marital status (0) single, (1) Married or Living with partner. Employment status: (2) full-time, (1) part-time, (0) unemployed, service industry. Pay Status: (2) full wages, (1) partial wages or POT (personal time off), (0) public assistance or no wages. Income was converted into eight, $15,000 categories starting with: $0–15,000 (0), and ending with $105,000 and above (8)
Trans/Queer transgender, nonbinary or genderqueer, CESD depressive symptoms, STAI state anxiety, HAI current health anxiety, ULS loneliness
***p < .001, **p ≤ .010, *p ≤ .05

ISSN: 2050-7283