A cross-lagged panel analysis of fear of COVID‐19 and depressive symptoms: a six-month longitudinal study

Numerous studies have examined the association between fear of COVID-19 (FoC-19) and depressive symptoms using cross-sectional designs. However, the directional nature of this relationship remains unclear. The present study addressed this gap by employing a two-wave longitudinal design and conducting a cross-lagged panel analysis (CLPA). Participants were 356 undergraduate students from two public universities in China (M_age = 18.32 years, <i>SD</i> = 0.74; 60.4% female), with 336 participants retained at the six-month follow-up (94.4% retention rate). Participants completed measures of FoC-19 and depressive symptoms twice, six months apart. The CLPA results indicated a unidirectional relationship: FoC-19 at Time 1 significantly predicted depressive symptoms at Time 2, whereas depressive symptoms at Time 1 did not predict FoC-19 at Time 2. Multi-group analyses further supported the gender invariance of these path coefficients. Collectively, the findings provide preliminary evidence that FoC-19 has a significant prospective effect on depressive symptoms, thereby contributing to theoretical refinement and expanding the applied scope of pandemic-related mental health research.