Facets of COVID-19-Related Stress in Relation to Well-Being and Sleep Quality: COVID-19-Related Fear, Social Isolation, and Financial Worries

As the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing, it has become of great importance to investigate how people can maintain their mental health during chronically stressful times. This study therefore investigated by which facets of COVID-19-related stress (COVID-19-related fear, financial worries, and social isolation) impacted people the most during a third COVID-19 infection wave from March until May 2021 and how these facets relate to well-being (emotional well-being and life satisfaction) and sleep quality. A study sample of 480 German participants (50.8% female) with a mean age of 43 years (SD = 13.7, 20-69 years) completed a cross-sectional online questionnaire. COVID-19-related fear was reported more often than financial worries and less often than social isolation. When controlling for financial worries and social isolation COVID-19-related fear only predicted emotional well-being, whereas financial worries and social isolation predicted both emotional well-being and sleep quality. Further, life satisfaction was only predicted by financial worries. These associations remained stable after controlling for age, gender, household income, and living alone. Financial worries although reported the least often, were the strongest and most stable predictor for well-being and sleep quality. Implications for future research and practical implications are discussed.