Lack of Robust Associations Between Prepandemic Coping Strategies and Frontolimbic Circuitry With Depression and Anxiety Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Preregistered Longitudinal Study

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing stressor that has resulted in the exacerbation of mental health problems worldwide. However, longitudinal studies that identify preexisting behavioral and neurobiological factors associated with mental health outcomes during the pandemic are lacking. Here, we examined associations between prepandemic coping strategy engagement and frontolimbic circuitry with internalizing symptoms during the pandemic. In 85 adults (71.8% female; age 18–30 years), we assessed prototypically adaptive coping strategies (Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale), resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging functional connectivity (FC) of frontolimbic circuitry, and depression and anxiety symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory, Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders–Adult, respectively). We conducted general linear models to test preregistered hypotheses that (1) lower coping engagement prepandemic and (2) weaker frontolimbic FC prepandemic would predict elevated symptoms during the pandemic; and (3) coping would interact with FC to predict symptoms during the pandemic. Depression and anxiety symptoms worsened during the pandemic (ps.05). Coping interacted with insula-rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) FC (p =.003, pFDR =.014) and with insula-ventral ACC FC (p