Does Mindfulness Moderate the Link of Worry About COVID-19 With Adjustment? An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model Approach

COVID-19 constitutes an unprecedented mental health challenge to the world. At this critical time, it is important to identify factors that may boost individuals’ well-being or render individuals more resistant to the negative impact of COVID-19-related stressors. The goals of this study were to examine whether individuals’ and their partners’ worry about COVID-19 were linked to individuals’ psychological, social, and cognitive adjustment and test individuals’ and their partners’ mindfulness as possible moderators.

Cross-sectional, dyadic data were collected from 211 Chinese couples with kindergarten-aged children living in Hong Kong, China, during its fourth major outbreak of COVID-19 (between December 2020 and January 2021). Using paper-and-pencil questionnaires, fathers and mothers independently reported their worry about COVID-19, mindfulness, depressive symptoms, social difficulties, and cognitive problems.

Actor-Partner-Interdependence Models revealed that, controlling for individuals’ gender and education levels, individuals’ worry about COVID-19 and mindfulness were positively and negatively associated with their own depressive symptoms, social difficulties, and cognitive problems, respectively. The worry of individuals’ partners was also positively associated with individuals’ depressive symptoms and social difficulties. These associations, however, were only significant when the partners had low but not high levels of mindfulness.

Our study highlighted the importance of studying the potential benefits of mindfulness at not only the individual but also the dyadic level.