ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1626124
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Influence of Flourishing and its Associated Factors on the Mental Health and Well-Being of IndividualsView all 11 articles
From Ordinary to Extraordinary -A tale of two studied samples' anxiety-related recovery work after COVID-19
Provisionally accepted
- 1MacEwan University, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- 2Federal University of São Carlos, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil
- 3College of Health Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- 4Gerontology Research Center, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
- 5Memorial, Newfoundland, Canada
- 6William James Center for Research, Lisbon, Portugal
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A global pandemic is a hardship and mentally distressing event for any of us, and particularly for people living at a greater risk of post-infectious health harms. Public discourse about COVID-19 largely characterizes older people as a physically and mentally vulnerable demographic. Research findings largely now to the contrary consider age an asset, a perspective in keeping with Seligman's idea that everyday people can also see the positive side of life and act accordingly when faced with events that are neither positive nor within their control. With this in mind, we explore how average older people were managing pandemic-related anxiety when mandated COVID-19 public health measures were lifted. Our primary study sample was a national census-based quota sample (N = 1,327) of average older Canadian people. A second study sample was recruited by convenience (N = 1,200) for comparison purposes. Both groups responded to an e-survey launched between July 1st and up to August 16th, 2022, about how anxious they felt and how they were managing at this key turning point. Convenience sample responders were largely residing in Ontario (Z = 781.667, p <.001), in very good to excellent health (Z = 180.534, p <.001), and university educated (Z = 1285.255, p <.001). Far fewer were in their 60s (Z = 124.898, p <.001; Z = 22.349, p <.001). Descriptive network analyses revealed that the two studied samples had in common a diverse and purposive network of coping strategies for managing pandemic-related anxiety. Average older Canadians managed their anxiety as capably as healthier, better educated, and generally older peers. Our findings are explored through a lens of positivity, not vulnerability. Methodological provocations are offered for future research, including post-pandemic between-sampling comparisons.
Keywords: Network analysis1, anxiety management2, representative sample, Convenience sample, Flourishing and Positive and Negative Feelings
Received: 10 May 2025; Accepted: 30 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Low, França, Naz Alisher, Gutman, Gao and von Humboldt. 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) or licensor 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:
Gail Low, MacEwan University, Edmonton, T5J 4S2, Alberta, Canada
Anila Naz Alisher, College of Health Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 2R3, Alberta, Canada
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