
94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry , 20 February 2025
Sec. Adolescent and Young Adult Psychiatry
Volume 16 - 2025 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1470733
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic and associated containment measures changed the daily lives of children and adolescents around the world. To investigate the individual differences in emotional maladjustment under the COVID-19 pandemic, this study focused on the roles of dispositional optimism-pessimism, knowledge about the COVID-19 disease, and conflicts with parents among Chinese early adolescents.
Method: edge about the COVID-19 disease, and conflicts with parents among Chinese early adolescents. The participants were 2,958 early adolescents aged 10 to 14 years old who completed online questionnaires during the pandemic.
Results: While higher pessimism and lower optimism both led to increased emotional maladjustment, pessimism made a greater contribution. Knowledge about the disease and parent-child conflicts were both risk factors for adolescents’ emotional maladjustment, yet optimism and pessimism interacted with different factors. More knowledge about the disease intensified the effect of pessimism, and more parent-conflict undermined the effect of optimism.
Discussion: Our findings provide directions for future aid in adolescence during hard periods depending on one’s personality.
Under the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic, people, from young to old, suffered various extents of psychological pressure, such as panic, anxiety, depression, loss, and posttraumatic stress (1–4). Among the general population, early adolescents deserve special attention (5). In such a life phase, adolescents have strong desires to be free and connected with peers (6). However, because of the pandemic, school suspension, discouragement of outdoor activities, social isolation from peers, and distance education have disrupted their daily life routines (7). In most cases, their parents were at home during the pandemic, and had to deal with both their own working affairs and their children’s daily management (8). The routine disruption and staying at home under parents’ monitoring might have put adolescents at high risk of emotional maladjustment (3, 9, 10). Individual differences were always common, i.e., some were less vulnerable to the hard times. This study aimed to investigate, during the COVID-19 pandemic, how adolescents’ individual differences in emotional maladjustment were related to their dispositional optimism−pessimism.
An optimist sees a half-filled glass as half full, while a pessimist thinks it’s half as empty. The universal folk saying describes two different ways that people evaluate about their problems, adversity, or resources, and expectancies for the future. Generally, it is conceptualized as dispositional optimism (11). The Life Orientation Test (LOT; 12) and the LOT-Revised are the two most widely used scales to measure optimism (13). Traditionally, optimism and pessimism are regarded as bipolar traits on the same scale (13). The negatively framed items (e.g., assessing the presence of pessimism) are recorded and then added to the positively framed items (e.g., assessing the presence of optimism) to produce an overall scale score of optimism (e.g., 14). However, some studies questioned this notion, stating that optimism and pessimism are two different dimensions (15, 16). Frist, optimism and pessimism are conceptually different. People who are low in pessimism do not have to be high in optimism. Second, from the empirical evidences, correlations between the optimism and pessimism subscales are modest (e.g., 17, 18). For example, For example, Scheier and colleagues (18) reported that the absence of pessimism was more predictive of physical health than was the presence of optimism. Third, in relation to the Big Five personality traits, genetic studies found that pessimism is associated with neuroticism, while optimism is associated with traits beyond neuroticism, including extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness (19, 20). Another genetic study distinguished optimism and pessimism from the five personality traits, suggesting independence for both (21).
Optimism by definition is related to well-being, while pessimism is on the contrary (11). During the hard period of COVID-19, optimists may experience less maladjustment than pessimists (11, 22). Youth with high optimism are likely to have positive outcome expectancies (12). They tend to believe that the pandemic will be controlled effectively and that life will be righting soon (23). The positive expectations are free of negative emotional reactions (e.g., anger, panic, and anxiety). In contrast, people with high pessimism are likely to expect negative outcomes. They may believe that they must stay at home and take online classes under parents’ monitoring for a long time. Moreover, optimists prefer to engage in coping strategies (e.g., problem-solving) rather than disengagement strategies (e.g., avoidance) when under stress (24, 25). Previous studies have demonstrated the positive associations of dispositional pessimism with perceived stress and psychological maladjustment (e.g., 26, 27), also during the COVID-19 pandemic (28–30). For example, Oh et al. (31) reported that the absence of pessimism than the presence of optimism was more strongly predictive of healthy behaviors that reduce the risk of infection during the COVID-19. The trait-driven effects also are valid among adolescents (32). Thus, optimism and pessimism deserve to be treated independently, which piqued our curiosity about how early adolescents’ dispositional optimism−pessimism determined individual differences in emotional maladjustment amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
In previous studies, optimism−pessimism has been conventionally treated as dispositional factor conditioning the relationship between environment and individual’s well-being (e.g., 14, 29, 30, 33). Instead, relatively less has been done to investigate the individual differences behind the relationship of adolescents’ dispositional optimism−pessimism with emotional maladjustment. This study endeavored to examine some potential moderators. Research shows that the effects of dispositional optimism−pessimism on well-being are resolved through intrapersonal and interpersonal processes (34). At the intrapersonal end, optimists persist in more engagement, goal-directed behaviors, and problem-solving or emotion-focused coping strategies than pessimists (11). At the interpersonal end, although empirical evidence has been scarce, it has consistently demonstrated that optimists have more positive social interactions and are more ready to seek social support when facing difficulties than pessimists (34). As such, some pandemic-related factors that were at the intrapersonal and interpersonal ends might adjust the relations of early adolescents’ dispositional optimism−pessimism to emotional maladjustment.
At the intrapersonal end, we showed interest in youth’s knowledge about the COVID-19 disease. Youth learned the information about COVID-19 from various channels, especially the internet media (35). The media exposure to the pandemic helps people know the disease and the epidemic situation, but it also might have affected people’s psychological responses with increased anxiety and heightened stress (36–38). It means that knowledge about the disease might affect their understanding or estimation of the severity and controllability of the pandemic, which may in turn affect their emotional and behavioral reactions and self-regulatory strategies (39). What’s more, because of the judgment bias (40), optimism might lead people to underestimate the severity of the pandemic, while pessimism might lead to people’s overestimation. Although having the similar knowledge, pessimists might have behaved more maladjusted responses than optimists did. For example, in a recent study, pessimists, who were better informed than optimists in COVID-19-related knowledge, showed more depression and anxiety than optimists (38). The study asserted that pessimists might be inclined to expose themselves to the media, receiving misinformation along with correct information. Media exposure might confirm to pessimists that the disease is more uncontrollable compared to the reality. Misinformation and false reports, in particular, could contribute to more maladjustment in pessimistic adolescents (38, 41). However, youth with high optimism might show resilience to the negative effect of media exposure. More knowledge about the virus may even help them recognize the pandemic, positively and scientifically engage in precautionary behaviors, and adapt to the hard period (42, 43). Therefore, youth’s knowledge about the disease may interact with their optimism or pessimism to navigate their adjustment.
At the interpersonal end, focuses were placed on youth’s conflicts with their parents during the pandemic. For school-going children and adolescents, the parent−child relationship during the pandemic may be full of challenges (44, 45). Apart from the adjustment of working remotely from home, or waiting for employment (8), many parents also face new demands of monitoring home-based schooling and children’s use of the internet and regulating children’s daily routines. These demands place increased stress on parents and drive parents to monitor, control, or scold their children, which further increases the risk for conflicts between parents and teenagers (46). Adolescents perceived more conflicts with their parents (e.g., 44). Such relational problems per se led to youths’ emotional maladjustment (47), but also in turn interferes with the interpersonal processes of optimism−pessimism on well-being. Optimism reflects one’s self-regulatory resources for coping with problems or stress (11); however, poor interpersonal relationship per se may be translated into stress, and even offset the positive effect of optimism or intensify the negative effect of pessimism. With more strain in the relationship with their parents, youth high in pessimism may be more likely to experience emotional maladjustment. For optimistic youth, it also may be challenging. The protective role of optimistic minds might have been submerged in conflicts with parents, since social connections with others (e.g., peers) have been hindered by the pandemic (7). Therefore, conflicts with parents may mitigate the protective effect of optimism but intensify the negative effect of pessimism on youth’s emotional maladjustment.
This study had three aims. First, we examined the associations between early adolescents’ dispositional optimism−pessimism and their emotional maladjustment. It was hypothesized that youth with high optimism experienced less emotional maladjustment, while youth with high pessimism suffered more. Second, we investigated the moderating role of youth’s knowledge about the disease. We expected that, from the intrapersonal process, more knowledge about the disease intensified the links of optimism and pessimism with emotional maladjustment. Third, we also investigated the moderating role of youth’s conflicts with their parents during the pandemic. We expected that, from the interpersonal process, more conflicts intensified the link of pessimism with emotional maladjustment but attenuated the link of optimism with emotional maladjustment. Examining these associations could help understand Chinese early adolescents’ individual differences in emotional maladjustment amidst the hard period.
This survey was conducted online via a Chinese survey website (www.wjx.cn) from March 1 to April 5, 2020. At the beginning of the online questionnaire, an informed consent form was provided. For youth, after the informed consent form was approved by their parents, they received access. After completing the online questionnaire, all participants were sincerely thanked and paid 10 RMB (approximately 1.43 dollars). A total of 3,995 respondents participated. Referring to DeSimone et al.’s (48) recommendations, we deleted the invalid responses (e.g., being rated with the same option on all the scales, unfinished, from an abnormal IP address, or too long or too short a duration to respond). Then, we included the participants aged 10 to 14 years old or in Grade 4 at least, obtaining a final sample of 2,958 early adolescents. Youth were on average 11.66 years old (SD = 1.30); half were girls (50.1%). The majority were identified as Han Chinese (96.2%) and from biological-parent families (87.2%). Approximately three quarters of parents’ educational attainment was junior high school and below, 72.8% and 77.9%, respectively, for fathers and mothers. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the corresponding author’s institute.
Five self-developed items based on panic, helplessness, anxiety, depression, and anger were used to assess adolescents’ emotional maladjustment (e.g., “I feel helpless”). The participants responded to each item on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). We calculated the mean scores by averaging the scores of the five items. Higher scores indicate higher levels of emotional maladjustment. The Cronbach’s α was .91.
This study used the LOT-Revised (13) in the Chinese version. The scale has six items related to optimism (3 items, e.g., “In uncertain situations, I usually expect the best”) and pessimism (3 items, e.g., “If something can go wrong for me, it will”). The participants responded to each item on a 5-point Likert scale of varying degrees of agreement or disagreement. The mean scores were calculated by averaging all the corresponding item scores to yield an optimism score and a pessimism score (49). This scale has been validated in Chinese populations (e.g., 50). In this study, the Cronbach’s αs for the optimism subscale and the pessimism subscale were acceptable,.71 and.79, respectively.
Five self-developed items involving typical symptoms, route of transmission, protective measures, cure rate, and mortality rate, were used to assess one’s knowledge about the COVID-19 disease (e.g., “How much do you know …”). Each item was rated on a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (do not know at all) to 7 (completely know). The internal consistency was .91.
In this study, youth’s conflicts with their parents were measured by four self-developed items (i.e., “How often do you show anger, quarrel, ignore, or feel an antipathy with your parents?”). The participants were asked to report the current relationships during the pandemic on a 7-point Likert scale, from 1 (never) to 7 (always). The internal consistency was good (α = .88).
We first calculated the descriptive statistics of all study variables and the bivariate correlations among them. Then, a hierarchical multiple regression model was conducted to examine the study hypotheses. In this model, sex, age, and optimism−pessimism were entered in Step 1; potential moderators (i.e., knowledge about the disease and parent−child conflicts) were entered in Step 2; two-way interaction terms between optimism−pessimism and potential moderators were entered in Step 3; and three-way interaction terms between optimism−pessimism, knowledge about the disease, and parent−child conflicts was entered in Step 4. We centered the values of all variables (except for sex) and then calculated the interaction terms. Once the significant interaction effect was confirmed, post-hoc simple slope analyses were conducted (51). All analyses were conducted within SPSS 26.0.
The means, standard deviations, and correlation matrix of all study variables are presented in Table 1. Sex and age were not significantly associated with emotional maladjustment. Optimism was negatively associated with emotional maladjustment (r = -.04, p = .029), while pessimism was positively associated with emotional maladjustment (r = .50, p <.001). Knowledge about the disease and parent−child conflicts were negatively associated with each other (r = -.12, p <.001), while both were positively associated with emotional maladjustment (r knowledge about the disease = .07, p <.001; r parent−child conflicts = .24, p <.001).
The results of the hierarchical multiple regression model are shown in Table 2. The first hypothesis was supported. Optimism was negatively associated with emotional maladjustment (β = -.04, p = .008), while pessimism was positively associated with emotional maladjustment (β = .50, p <.001). The hypothesis of the moderating role of knowledge about the disease was partially supported, in which the interaction term between pessimism and knowledge about the disease was significant in predicting youth’s emotional maladjustment (β = .07, p <.001). Figure 1 depicts the interaction effect of knowledge about the disease, that for youth with more knowledge about the disease, pessimism was associated with more emotional maladjustment (b +1 SD = .58, p <.001 VS. b -1 SD = .45, p <.001). The hypothesis of the moderating role of parent−child conflicts also was partly supported, where the interaction term with optimism was significant (β = .04, p = .013). As depicted in Figure 2, compared with youth who experienced more conflicts with their parents (b = -.01, p = .812), optimism was significantly associated with less emotional maladjustment among youth who experienced fewer conflicts with their parents (b = -.09, p <.001). Additionally, the effects of the two three-way interaction terms were not significant.
Figure 1. The interaction effect of pemissm and knowledge about the disease. Low and high levels of knowledge about the disease were coded as ± SD. ***p <.001.
Figure 2. The interaction effect of optimism and parent−child conflicts. Low and high levels of parent−child conflicts were coded as ± SD. ***p <.001.
This study paid special attention to the individual differences in early adolescents’ emotional maladjustment during the hard period and examined the trait-driven effects of dispositional optimism−pessimism and the potential adjusting effects of knowledge about the disease from the intrapersonal process and the conflicts with their parents from the interpersonal process. With a large sample of Chinese early adolescents, it was found that dispositional optimism and pessimism were differently associated with emotional maladjustment, and that such associations were adjusted by their knowledge about the disease and conflicts with their parents. These findings help understand early adolescents’ individual differences in emotional maladjustment, support the independent dimensions of optimism and pessimism, and provide some practical implications from both intrapersonal and interpersonal processes, when facing the pandemic or public health crisis contexts in future.
Our findings first support the trait-driven effect of dispositional optimism−pessimism on individual differences in emotional maladjustment (e.g., 32) and echo the proverb that “a pessimist sees a glass half-empty, an optimist sees it half-full”. Amidst the COVID-19 period, youth high in optimism suffered less emotional maladjustment, while those high in pessimism experienced more. In terms of our sample, early adolescents with high optimism might tend to believe the controllability of the disease or to enjoy the period during which they could stay at home with their parents’ companionship. In contrast, when thinking about the situation, pessimistic youth may overestimate the uncontrollability of the pandemic and underestimate their own agency. They might be easily sick of being trapped at home and taking online classes under their parents’ monitoring for a long time. These trait-driven beliefs or reactions contributed to the individual differences. In the face of the pandemic and the anti-epidemic measures in mainland China, the situation for almost all the ordinary people were the same. The individual differences in social adjustment were largely due to these trait-driven beliefs or reactions. Although not examined, the underlying mechanisms might also be related to their attitudes or trust about the government’s anti-epidemic measures, self-regulatory capabilities, coping strategies, and belief- or meaning-making in such threatening situations (e.g., 23, 52–54).
More importantly, by treating optimism and pessimism separately, it was found that the larger effect size and significance of pessimism indicated its higher contribution than that of optimism, although statistically significant associations are shown in both optimism and pessimism with emotional maladjustment. This finding is similar to the study by Scheier and colleagues (18), who emphasized pessimism as a larger predictor of physical health. It also respond Scheier and colleagues’ (18) idea, that the presence of pessimism and the absence of optimism relates differentially to emotional adjustment that arise in reaction to the hard time. The independent effects of optimism and pessimism further support the claim that optimism and pessimism should be regarded as separate entities (16, 18, 21). This also echoes Baumeister et al. (55)’s general principle of psychological phenomena: “bad is stronger than good”. Similarly, in research about the 2003 SARS epidemic, it also was found that pessimism rather than optimism significantly predicted Chinese people’s anxiety (27). This finding hints to us that during hard periods such as SARS or COVID-19 outbreaks, early adolescents high in pessimism deserve more care and support, and parenting practices or other sources of instructions aiming to help adolescents adjust to a more optimistic ideology would be highly rewarded in their future development. It also provides educational directions or further intervention that place a greater weight on lessening pessimism would be promising in promoting adolescents’ adjustment than will those that focus more on promoting optimism (11, 18, 56).
This study also showed that the predisposed effects of optimism and pessimism on emotional maladjustment were conditioned by some pandemic-related intrapersonal and interpersonal factors. At the intrapersonal end, we validated the moderating role of knowledge about the disease. On the one hand, knowledge about the disease per se positively predicts early adolescents’ higher emotional maladjustment (e.g., 36). On the other hand, the link from pessimism to emotional maladjustment was intensified by one’s knowledge about the disease. These findings were inconsistent with previous studies where people’s knowledge about the disease was not related to any behavioral or emotional concerns (57, 58). It may be that participants in these studies were adults who have more recourses, activeness, autonomy, and strategies to manage or control their own lives than the youngsters of this study. More importantly, the results of the present study suggest that the increased negative outcomes may be more exclusive among youth who are more pessimistic (38, 59). From a broader lens, it indirectly supports the previous idea that media exposure can help people know more about the epidemic situation but at the expense of increased psychological deterioration (37). Specifically, the presence of pessimism might lead adolescents to overestimate the severity of pandemic and be more vulnerable in these situations. When felt negative, they easily judged the risk as high and benefits as low (60). And, in the present study, it assessed adolescents’ subjective knowledge about the disease, rather than their answers to some objective questions (e.g., 61), which might have over-inflated the magnitude of the moderating effect. The possible case was that exposure to false or alarming information might also have affected pessimists’ behavioral and emotional responses; that is exposure to alarmist content or conspiracy theories might exacerbate pessimism (39). It also suggests that parents and media should discuss and spread pandemic or epidemic information with early adolescents in a scientific, sensitive, kind, effective, accurate, and age-appropriate way. It could help children through hard periods, especially pessimists (62).
However, in the relation of optimism to emotional maladjustment, we did not find a moderating role of knowledge about the disease. This suggests that the effect of optimism was similar in different levels of obtained knowledge about the disease. This provides proof for the psychological resilience of optimism to media exposure in the pandemic period. Optimistic adolescents were not harmed by gaining more knowledge of the pandemic, while pessimistic adolescents might need guidance to process the knowledge before they expect the worst. It may be that Chinese have a pessimistic bias towards negative events (63), although no examining the cultural difference in this study. Additionally, future research should explore the different styles of optimistic thinking that could be masked by overall resilience. For realistic optimistic adolescents, without proper guidance, learning more about the pandemic may lead them to act with vigilance, which disrupts their routines and social competence (27). On the other hand, for unrealistic optimists, who perceive themselves to be safer than others in the same circumstances, learning more knowledge about the pandemic is likely to be helpful (43, 64). Especially considering evidence that unrealistic optimists are more likely to behave against the recommendations from health care professionals, learning more about the pandemic serves as a protective factor for their physical and psychological health (64, 65).
At the interpersonal end, our findings revealed that parent−child conflicts adjusted the relation of optimism to emotional maladjustment. Specifically, the positivity of optimism when facing hardships was buried, if the adolescents experienced more conflicts with their parents. This finding suggests the significance of the parent−child relationship (66), since during the pandemic period, other significant close relationships, such as those with close friends were disrupted, and children were more dependent on their relationships with their parents (45, 67). Unfortunately, the pandemic and related measures have made parenting and relationships more challenging, and conflicts occur frequently (44, 46). Conflicts with their parents were impactful on adolescents’ emotional adjustment (e.g., 58). The positivity of optimistic minds was compromised. This may reflect the destructiveness of the collision between early adolescents’ eagerness for autonomy from their parents and parents’ frequent monitoring during the pandemic (68). However, only the presence of optimism on emotional maladjustment was moderated by parent−child conflicts, instead of the absence of pessimism, again suggesting the separability between optimism and pessimism. Parent−child conflicts did not moderate the link from pessimism to emotional maladjustment, which may be due to the powerful negativity of pessimism per se on psychological health (18). Since adolescents high in pessimism were already emotionally harmed, as parent−child conflicts escalated, the additional layer of difficulty was rather marginal. Additionally, adolescents high in pessimism are more likely to experience relational problems (34), so the synergistic effect of parent−child conflicts with dispositional pessimism on adolescents’ maladjustment was not evidenced. These findings highlight that parents’ efforts to maintain daily interactions in a kind, friendly, and supportive manner with their adolescents would be rewarded during the pandemic or other possible public health crisis contexts in future.
Several limitations of this study should be discussed. First, the design of our study was cross-sectional, which was unable to reveal the causal associations among study variables. For example, the more positive youth were in responding to the pandemic, the more accurate and effective they might have acquired knowledge about the diseases (53). Second, we used online questionnaires and nonrandom sampling, which may have affected the representativeness and reliability of the results. Adolescents who refused to participant into our survey might have been suffering the hard period. And, the use of self-reports to measure emotional adjustment and parent interactions might have introduced biases, such as social desirability or recall issues. Third, except for dispositional optimism−pessimism, other variables were measured by self-developed tools, which may have affected the reliability of our results. For example, knowledge about the disease was limited in its ability to distinguish between types of knowledge (e.g., factual knowledge versus misunderstandings or misinformation). It might also limit the comparison with other related research. Last, this study was from China. The cultural specificity in optimism and pessimism in Chinese society may affect the generalization of the results and comparison with other studies in Western society (69). Additionally, this survey was started at the end of the Level I emergency response to COVID-19 (which began on January 23, 2020 and turned into Level II in late February in succession). That is, some families from some provinces had ended their home confinement or had become accustomed to staying at home, so the negative effect of the pandemic might be less salient in this context, compared to studies in other countries.
The data underlying this manuscript will be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author.
The studies involving humans were approved by the Institutional Review Board of Beijing Normal University in China. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent for participation in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardians/next of kin.
YJ: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. DW: Formal Analysis, Writing – original draft. XL: Funding acquisition, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing.
The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The study described in this report was funded by the COVID-19 Prevention and Research Emergency Project of Beijing Normal University, and the COVID-19 Mental Health Support Project of the Faculty of Psychology of Beijing Normal University.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
1. Huang Y, Zhao N. Generalized anxiety disorder, depressive symptoms and sleep quality during COVID-19 outbreak in China: A web-based cross-sectional survey. Psychiatry Res. (2020) 288:112954. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112954
2. Qiu J, Shen B, Zhao M, Wang Z, Xie B, Xu Y. A nationwide survey of psychological distress among Chinese people in the COVID-19 epidemic: Implications and policy recommendations. Gen Psychiatry. (2020) 33:e100213. doi: 10.1136/gpsych-2020-100213
3. Tang S, Xiang M, Cheung T, Xiang Y-T. Mental health and its correlates among children and adolescents during COVID-19 school closure: The importance of parent−child discussion. J Affect Disord. (2021) 279:353–60. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.10.016
4. Zhao Y, An Y, Tan X, Li X. Mental health and its influencing factors among self- isolating ordinary citizens during the beginning epidemic of COVID-19. J Loss Trauma. (2020) 25:1–14. doi: 10.1080/15325024.2020.1761592
5. Zheng Y-B, Zeng N, Yuan K, Tian S-S, Yang Y-B, Gao N, et al. Prevalence and risk factor for long COVID in children and adolescents: A meta-analysis and systematic review. J Infection Public Health. (2023) 16:660–72. doi: 10.1016/j.jiph.2023.03.005
6. Laursen B, Collins WA. Parent–child relationships during adolescence. In: Lerner R, Steinberg L, editors. Handbook of Adolescent Psychology: Vol. 2. Contextual Influences on Adolescent Development, 3rd ed. Wiley, New York (2009). p. 3–42.
7. de Figueiredo GS, Sandre PC, Portugal LCL, Mázala-de-Oliveira T, da Silva Chagas L, Raony Í, et al. COVID-19 pandemic impact on children and adolescents’ mental health: Biological, environmental, and social factors. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. (2021) 106:110171. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2020.110171
8. Zhang SX, Wang Y, Rauch A, Wei F. Unprecedented disruption of lives and work: Health, distress and life satisfaction of working adults in China one month into the COVID-19 outbreak. Psychiatry Res. (2020) 288:112958. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112958
9. Liu Q, Zhou Y, Xie X, Xue Q, Zhu K, Wan Z, et al. The prevalence of behavioral problems among school-aged children in home quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. J Affect Disord. (2021) 279:412–6. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.10.008
10. Yue J, Zang X, Le Y, An Y. Anxiety, depression and PTSD among children and their parent during 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in China. Curr Psychol. (2022) 41:5723–30. doi: 10.1007/s12144-020-01191-4
11. Carver CS, Scheier MF, Segerstrom SC. Optimism. Clin Psychol Rev. (2010) 30:879–89. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2010.01.006
12. Scheier MF, Carver CS. Optimism, coping, and health: Assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies. Health Psychol. (1985) 4:219. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.4.3.219
13. Scheier MF, Carver CS, Bridges MW. Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism (and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem): A reevaluation of the Life Orientation Test. J Pers Soc Psychol. (1994) 67:1063–78. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.67.6.1063
14. Majeed NM, Tan JJX, Tov W, Hartanto A. Dispositional optimism as a buffer against emotional reactivity to daily stressors: A daily diary approach. J Res Pers. (2021) 93:1–5. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2021.104105
15. Chang L, McBride-Chang C. The factor structure of the Life Orientation Test. Educ psychol Measurement. (1996) 56:325–9. doi: 10.1177/0013164496056002013
16. Herzberg PY, Glaesmer H, Hoyer J. Separating optimism and pessimism: a robust psychometric analysis of the revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R). psychol Assessment. (2006) 18:433–8. doi: 10.1037/1040-3590.18.4.433
17. Qi X. Meta-analysis of relationship between optimism-pessimism and subjective well-being. Psychology: Techniques Appl. (2016) 4:592–7.
18. Scheier MF, Swanson JD, Barlow MA, Greenhouse JB, Wrosch C, Tindle HA. Optimism versus pessimism as predictors of physical health: A comprehensive reanalysis of dispositional optimism research. Am Psychol. (2021) 76:529–48. doi: 10.1037/amp0000666
19. Sharpe J, Martin N, Roth K. Optimism and the Big Five factors of personality: Beyond neuroticism and extraversion. Pers Individ Dif. (2011) 51:946–51. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2011.07.033
20. Weiss A, Bates TC, Luciano M. Happiness is a personal(ity) thing: The genetics of personality and well-being in a representative sample. psychol Sci. (2008) 19:205–10. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02068.x
21. Bates TC. The glass is half full and half empty: A population-representative twin study testing if optimism and pessimism are distinct systems. J Positive Psychol. (2015) 10:533–42. doi: 10.1080/17439760.2015.1015155
22. Muñoz-Fernández N, Rodríguez-Meirinhos A. Adolescents’ concerns, routines, peer Activities, frustration, and optimism in the time of COVID-19 confinement in Spain. J Clin Med. (2021) 10:798. doi: 10.3390/jcm10040798
23. Jovančević A, Milićević N. Optimism−pessimism, conspiracy theories and general trust as factors contributing to COVID-19 related behavior – A cross-cultural study. Pers Individ Dif. (2020) 167:110216. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2020.110216
24. Scheier MF, Carver CS. Effects of optimism on psychological and physical well-being: Theoretical overview and empirical update. Cogn Ther Res. (1992) 16:201–28. doi: 10.1007/BF01173489
25. Cabras C, Mondo M. Coping strategies, optimism, and life satisfaction among first-year university students in Italy: Gender and age differences. Higher Educ. (2018) 75:643–54. doi: 10.1007/s10734-017-0161-x
26. Extremera N, Durán A, Rey L. Perceived emotional intelligence and dispositional optimism−pessimism: Analyzing their role in predicting psychological adjustment among adolescents. Pers Individ Dif. (2007) 42:1069–79. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2006.09.014
27. Xie XF, Stone E, Zheng R, Zhang RG. The ‘typhoon eye effect’: Determinants of distress during the SARS epidemic. J Risk Res. (2011) 14:1091–107. doi: 10.1080/13669877.2011.571790
28. Coetzee BJ, Kagee A. Structural barriers to adhering to health behaviors in the context of the COVID-19 crisis: Considerations for low- and middle-income countries. Global Public Health. (2020) 15:1093–102. doi: 10.1080/17441692.2020.1779331
29. Peng C, Peng Z, Lin J, Xie J, Liang Y. How and when perceived COVID-19 crisis disruption triggers employee work withdrawal behavior: The role of perceived control and trait optimism. Pers Individ Dif. (2025) 235:112981. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2024.112981
30. Vos LMW, Habibović M, Nyklíček I, Smeets T, Mertens G. Optimism, mindfulness, and resilience as potential protective factors for the mental health consequences of fear of the coronavirus. Psychiatry Res. (2021) 300:113927. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2021.113927
31. Oh J, Tetreau EN, Purol MF, Kim ES, Chopik WJ. Optimism and pessimism were prospectively associated with adaptation during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Res Pers. (2024) 113:104541. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2024.104541
32. George CP, Michelle MT, Helena R, Susan HS, Jeannie S, Michael GS. A prospective study of the effects of optimism on adolescent health risks. Pediatrics. (2010) 127:308–16. doi: 10.1542/peds.2010-0748
33. Britton AR, Sliter MT, Jex SM. Is the glass really half-full? The reverse-buffering effect of optimism on undermining behavior. Pers Individ Dif. (2012) 52:712–7. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2011.12.038
34. Smith TW, Ruiz JM, Cundiff JM, Baron KG, Nealey-Moore JB. Optimism and pessimism in social context: An interpersonal perspective on resilience and risk. J Res Pers. (2013) 47:553–62. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2013.04.006
35. Xie X, Zang Z, Ponzoa JM. The information impact of network media, the psychological reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, and online knowledge acquisition: Evidence from Chinese college students. J Innovation Knowledge. (2020) 5:297–305. doi: 10.1016/j.jik.2020.10.005
36. Frissen T, De Coninck D, Matthys K, d’Haenens L. Longitudinal evidence of how media audiences differ in public health perceptions and behaviors during a global pandemic. Front Public Health. (2020) 8:583408. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.583408
37. Garfin DR, Silver RC, Holman EA. The novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) outbreak: Amplification of public health consequences by media exposure. Health Psychol. (2020) 39:355–7. doi: 10.1037/hea0000875
38. Galić M, Mustapić L, Šimunić A, Sić L, Cipolletta S. COVID-19 related knowledge and mental health: Case of Croatia. Front Psychol. (2020) 11:567368. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.567368
39. Zhang X, Du L, Huang Y, Luo X, Wang F. COVID-19 information seeking and individuals’ protective behaviors: examining the role of information sources and information content. BMC Public Health. (2024) 24:316. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-17770-0
40. Lagisz M, Zidar J, Nakagawa S, Neville V, Sorato E, Paul ES, et al. Optimism, pessimism and judgement bias in animals: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. (2020) 118:3–17. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.07.012
41. Zhou SJ, Zhang LG, Wang LL, Guo ZC, Wang JQ, Chen JC, et al. Prevalence and socio-demographic correlates of psychological health problems in Chinese adolescents during the outbreak of COVID-19. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. (2020) 29:749–58. doi: 10.1007/s00787-020-01541-4
42. Taylor SE, Kemeny ME, Aspinwall LG, Schneider SG, Rodriguez R, Herbert M. Optimism, coping, psychological distress, and high-risk sexual behavior among men at risk for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). J Pers Soc Psychol. (1992) 63:460–73. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.63.3.460
43. Weinstein ND. Why it won’t happen to me: Perceptions of risk factors and susceptibility. Health Psychol. (1984) 3:431–57. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.3.5.431
44. Jiang Y, Tan Y, Wu D, Yin J, Lin X. The double-edged impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Chinese family relationships. J Family Issues. (2023) 44:91–111. doi: 10.1177/0192513X211041990
45. Prime H, Wade M, Browne DT. Risk and resilience in family well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Am Psychol. (2020) 75:631–43. doi: 10.1037/amp0000660
46. Chung G, Lanier P, Wong PYJ. Mediating effects of parental stress on harsh parenting and parent−child relationship during Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic in Singapore. J Family Violence. (2022) 37:801–812. doi: 10.1007/s10896-020-00200-1
47. Pinquart M. Associations of parenting dimensions and styles with externalizing problems of children and adolescents: An updated meta-analysis. Dev Psychol. (2017) 53:873–932. doi: 10.1037/dev0000295
48. DeSimone JA, Harms PD, DeSimone AJ. Best practice recommendations for data screening. J Organizational Behav. (2015) 36:171–81. doi: 10.1002/job.1962
49. Robinson-Whelen S, Kim C, MacCallum RC, Kiecolt-Glaser JK. Distinguishing optimism from pessimism in older adults: Is it more important to be optimistic or not to be pessimistic? J Pers Soc Psychol. (1997) 73:1345–53. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.73.6.1345
50. Wen J. Reliability and validity of the life orientation test in college students. Chin Ment Health J. (2012) 26:305–9.
51. Aiken LS, West SG. Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. (1991) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
52. Jiang R. Knowledge, attitudes and mental health of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Children Youth Serv Rev. (2020) 119:105494. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105494
53. Xie X, Xue Q, Zhou Y, Zhu K, Liu Q, Zhang J, et al. Mental health status among children in home confinement during the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak in Hubei Province, China. JAMA Pediatr. (2020) 174:890–900. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.1619
54. Yang Z, Ji L-J, Yang Y, Wang Y, Zhu L, Cai H. Meaning making helps cope with COVID-19: A longitudinal study. Pers Individ Dif. (2021) 174:110670. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.110670
55. Baumeister RF, Bratslavsky E, Finkenauer C, Vohs KD. Bad is stronger than good. Rev Gen Psychol. (2001) 5:323–70. doi: 10.1037//1089-2680.5.4.323
56. Riskind JH, Sarampote CS, Mercier MA. For every malady a sovereign cure: Optimism training. J Cogn Psychother. (1996) 10:105–17. doi: 10.1891/0889-8391.10.2.105
57. Li J-B, Yang A, Dou K, Wang L-X, Zhang M-C, Lin X-Q. Chinese public’s knowledge, perceived severity, and perceived controllability of the COVID-19 and their associations with emotional and behavioral reactions, social participation, and precautionary behavior: A national survey. (2020). doi: 10.31234/osf.io/5tmsh
58. Magson NR, Freeman JY, Rapee RM, Richardson CE, Oar EL, Fardouly J. Risk and protective factors for prospective changes in adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Youth Adolescence. (2021) 50:44–57. doi: 10.1007/s10964-020-01332-9
59. McNaughton-Cassill ME. The news media and psychological distress. Anxiety Stress Coping. (2001) 14:193–211. doi: 10.1080/10615800108248354
60. Soofi M, Najafi F, Karami-Matin B. Using insights from behavioral economics to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Appl Health Economics Health Policy. (2020) 18:345–50. doi: 10.1007/s40258-020-00595-4
61. Papasteri C, Letzner RD, Pascal S. Pandemic KAP framework for behavioral responses: initial development from lockdown data. Curr Psychol. (2024) 43:22767–79. doi: 10.1007/s12144-024-05670-w
62. Dalton L, Rapa E, Stein A. Protecting the psychological health of children through effective communication about COVID-19. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. (2020) 4:346–7. doi: 10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30097-3
63. Chang EC, Asakawa K. Cultural variations on optimistic and pessimistic bias for self versus a sibling: Is there evidence for self-enhancement in the West and for self-criticism in the East when the referent group is specified? J Pers Soc Psychol. (2003) 84:569–81. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.84.3.569
64. Dolinski D, Dolinska B, Zmaczynska-Witek B, Banach M, Kulesza W. Unrealistic optimism in the time of coronavirus pandemic: May it help to kill, if so—Whom: Disease or the person? J Clin Med. (2020) 9:1464. doi: 10.3390/jcm9051464
65. Dolinski D, Kulesza W, Muniak P, Dolinska B, Węgrzyn R, Izydorczak K. Media intervention program for reducing unrealistic optimism bias: The link between unrealistic optimism, well-being, and health. Appl Psychology: Health Well-Being. (2022) 14:499–518. doi: 10.1111/aphw.12316
66. Tang X, Tang S, Ren Z, Wong DFK. Psychosocial risk factors associated with depressive symptoms among adolescents in secondary schools in mainland China: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Affect Disord. (2020) 263:155–65. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2019.11.118
67. Campione-Barr N, Rote W, Killoren SE, Rose AJ. Adolescent adjustment during COVID-19: The role of close relationships and COVID-19-related stress. J Res Adolescence. (2021) 31:608–22. doi: 10.1111/jora.12647
68. Somerville LH. The teenage brain: sensitivity to social evaluation. Curr Dir psychol Sci. (2013) 22:121–7. doi: 10.1177/0963721413476512
Keywords: COVID-19, optimism-pessimism, emotional maladjustment, knowledge about the disease, parent-child conflicts
Citation: Jiang Y, Wu D and Lin X (2025) How dispositional optimism–pessimism relates to early adolescents’ emotional maladjustment during COVID-19? Moderating roles of knowledge about the disease and parent-child conflicts. Front. Psychiatry 16:1470733. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1470733
Received: 01 August 2024; Accepted: 22 January 2025;
Published: 20 February 2025.
Edited by:
Leon Jesús German-Ponciano, Universidad Veracruzana, MexicoReviewed by:
Tour Liu, Tianjin Normal University, ChinaCopyright © 2025 Jiang, Wu and Lin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Xiuyun Lin, bGlueHlAYm51LmVkdS5jbg==
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Research integrity at Frontiers
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.