Data and alternative models describing the associations among non-infection pandemic stress, event-related rumination, depression, and anxiety

Here we present cross-sectional data collected from 1507 participants through the Qualtrics online survey platform. Participants were recruited from Reddit, Facebook, and the Queen's University undergraduate participant pool, and were instructed to complete a pandemic stress survey, the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) [1], the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) [2], a modified version of Event-Related Rumination Inventory (ERRI) [3], and a demographics questionnaire. For the 1069 participants who were not exposed to COVID-19 infection, we calculated the sum of each scale/subscale and performed a multiple mediation analysis using MPlus. The results indicated that three models (one primary model and two alternative models) had comparable statistical power to explain the variance as we tested different configurations of predictor, mediator, and outcome variables. Given the cross-sectional nature of the present study, we could not conclude which model was most valid. Therefore, we share our original data and tested models here for others to use. They are useful for researchers who wish to replicate our results, conduct new analyses with these data, or design future studies.