The COVID-19 anxiety syndrome and selective attentional bias towards COVID-19-related stimuli in UK residents during the 2020-2021 pandemic

The psychological and social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are pervasive and there is potential for a long-lasting impact on mental health. In the current study we sought to provide, in a representative sample of UK residents during the third COVID-19 lockdown in February 2021, further evidence for the validation of the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome construct. We did this by evaluating the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome against measures of personality, health anxiety and COVID-19 anxiety in predicting levels of generalised anxiety and depression, and by examining whether increased health anxiety and COVID-19 psychological distress (COVID-19 anxiety and COVID-19 anxiety syndrome) scores were associated with increased attentional bias to COVID-19-related stimuli. A series of correlation analyses revealed that neuroticism, health anxiety, COVID-19 anxiety and COVID-19 anxiety syndrome scores were positively and significantly correlated with generalised anxiety and depression scores, and that the perseveration component of the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome predicted generalised anxiety and depression scores independently of age, gender, conscientiousness, openness, health anxiety and COVID-19 anxiety. Furthermore, results indicated that only the total COVID-19 anxiety syndrome scores, and the components of avoidance and perseveration, were positively and significantly correlated with attentional bias indices. More specifically, the general attentional bias index was only shown to be positively and significantly correlated with the total COVID-19 anxiety syndrome scores and its perseveration component, while slowed disengagement was only shown to be negatively and significantly correlated with the total COVID-19 anxiety syndrome score and its avoidance component. The implications of these findings are discussed.