Information Sources and Their Relationship to Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Network Study

Research Question 1:

How central are different sources of information used to obtain knowledge about the COVID-19 pandemic in network along with depressive and anxiety symptoms? Which sources of information are most strongly connected to different symptoms of depression and anxiety?

Staying away from information will be measured in the present study. As avoidance is a type of safety behavior in anxiety disorders, the investigators are further eager to investigate the centrality of this behavior in the network. Furthermore, multiple studies using latent-variable paradigms have established a relationship between sum-scores of depression and social anxiety use in general. The investigators are further interested in examining this potential link more thoroughly and detailed in the present network study. The findings of this study, although they will be cross-sectional and require further examination in studies with temporal data structure, will be an important and interesting starting point giving initial ideas about potential mechanisms that may be involved in use of information sources in pandemics and mental health.

Statistical analysis:

The estimated network will consist of 23 items (9: PHQ-9; 7: GAD-7; 7: information sources to obtain information about COVID-19). The network will be estimated using the R package qgraph (Epskamp et al., 2012). Network stability and accuracy tests will be conducted using R package bootnet (Epskamp, et al., 2018). An undirected partial correlation network will be estimated, resulting in associations between each pair of symptoms controlling for all other associations among symptoms. Centrality indices will be reported. The appropriate correlation method will be applied following an assessment of the data (e.g., with regards to possible skewness).