Stressful life events and social capital during the early phase of COVID-19 in the U.S. Cindy Ogolla Jean-Baptiste a, * , R. Patti Herring b , W. Lawrence Beeson c , Hildemar Dos Santos d , Jim E. Banta e a MassachusettsVeterans Epidemiology, Research and Information Center MAVERIC, Loma Linda University Schoolof Public Health, United States b Health Promotion & Education, Loma Linda University School of Public Health, United States c Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Loma Linda University School of Public Health, United States d Preventive Care, Loma Linda University School of Public Health, United States e Health Policy and Leadership, Loma Linda University School of Public Health, United States ARTICLE INFO Keywords: COVID-19 Coronavirus Transactional stress model Stressful life events Sentiment analysis Social capital ABSTRACT Background: A novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was reported in Wuhan, China late December 2019. The disease has as of the end of March 2020, affected over 35 countries (with over 570,000 cases and 26,000 deaths) worldwide. This includes the U.S., where cases are increasing by the thousands every day (100,000 cases with 1500 deaths as of April 2020). We set out to investigate new or increased stressful life events (SLEs) as a result of this pandemic in the U.S. Methods: In this exploratory qualitative study, we examined new or heightened SLEs during an active phase of this outbreak. We used a list of SLEs acquired from the first phase of our study, whereby we conducted open-ended surveys and performed an in-depth focus group. We applied Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional model of stress and coping to understand diverse focus-group participants’ appraisal of events. We coded survey data and applied sentiment analysis. Results: Participants varied in perceived threat and challenge appraisals of COVID-19, indicating both calm and fear. From 267 coded and sentiment analyzed events from survey text, 95% were predominantly negative; 112 (42%) very negative and 142 (53%) moderately negative. Social capital was unanimously emphasized upon as monumental for example: family, friends or technology mediated. We additionally identified seven major themes of SLEs due to the pandemic. Limitations: Our sample profile is not inclusive of all subsets of the population. Conclusions: Participants mostly shared similar frustrations and a variety of SLEs such as fear of the unknown and concern for loved ones as a result of COVID-19. 1. Introduction The Corona Virus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan China in December of 2019 (WHO, 2020a). Since then, the dis- ease has ravaged through populations worldwide paralyzing public health efforts and health systems with the continued devastating death tolls projected by the time of this publication. On March 11th , 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease a global pandemic (WHO, 2020b) and nations all over the world called for mea- sures to combat the disease within their own countries. As of the writing of this article, March 28th , 2020, the global count includes 571,678 confirmed cases with 26,494 deaths (WHO, 2020c). In the U.S., there have been 101,242 confirmed cases and 1588 deaths (Chavez, 2020). Stressful life events (SLE) have been studied over tens of decades and are postulated precursors of health behaviors, outcomes and quality of life (Holmes and Rahe, 1967; Cohen et al., 2019; Dong et al., 2019; Rafanelli et al., 2005; Lillberg et al.,2003; Muscatell et al., 2009). In health psychology, the overall physical and environmental effects of stress are often studied along with mediating and moderating factors, such as coping and social support (Hobfoll, 1998; Ward et al., 2003). Social capital is the collective term for various support initiatives avail- able to members of social groups which have been shown to provide * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: cjeanbaptiste@llu.edu, caogolla@gmail.com (C.O. Jean-Baptiste). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Social Sciences & Humanities Open journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ssaho https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2020.100057 Received 19 April 2020; Received in revised form 13 August 2020; Accepted 18 August 2020 Available online 28 August 2020 2590-2911/Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Social Sciences & Humanities Open 2 (2020) 100057