Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the longitudinal mediation effect of coping strategies(emotion-focused, problem-focused, and maladaptive) on the relationship between perceived stress during the COVID-19 pandemic and psychological distress(negative affect, depression, anxiety, and anger). ). Also, This study sought to find generational differences between coping strategies used during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants were 941 adult aged between twenties and seventies. The final participants were recruited on two separated longitudinal time points, Time 1 and Time 2. The result were as follows: Only Maladaptive coping strategy(Time 2) had a mediating effect on the relationship between COVID-19 stress(Time 1) and psychological distress(Time 2). . The result of the generation-based multi-group analysis did not yield significant differences in the use of coping strategies. This study is meaningful that it longitudinally examined the psychological distress of adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications, limitations and directions for future research are presented.