Serial coping to anxiety under a pandemic and subsequent regulation of vice food and beverage consumption among young adults

• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Author: David A. Jaud,Renaud Lunardo
• Date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12442

SPECIAL ISSUE

Serial coping to anxiety under a pandemic

and subsequent regulation of vice food and

beverage consumption among young adults

David A. Jaud | Renaud Lunardo

Department of Marketing, Kedge

Business School, Talence, France

Correspondence

David A. Jaud, Department of Marketing,

Kedge Business School, 680 Cours de la

Libération, 33405, Talence, France.

Email: david.jaud02@kedgebs.com

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted great anxiety for

most people worldwide. Building on the coping literature and

two studies, this research examines the effect of such anxiety

on young (18–35 years old) adults' consumption of vice food

and beverages. Specifically, in an online experiment using a

UK sample (N=211), we first identify the feeling of helpless-

ness as the reason why anxious people accept a situation less

and reinterpret it less positively. Then, in a large study in

France (N=1006), we show that these coping mechanisms

of acceptance and positive reinterpretation explain why indi-

viduals engage in unhealthy consumption as a response to

their anxiety. From this serial coping explanation of the effects

of anxiety, this article then offers implications for social mar-

keters and public policymakers, particularly with respect to

young people's well-being and physical health.

KEYWORDS

acceptance, anxiety, consumer well-being, coping strategies,

helplessness, pandemic, positive reinterpretation, vice

consumption

1|INTRODUCTION

More than half of the worldwide population (54%) experienced anxiety symptoms during the

first COVID-19 lockdown (Fullana et al., 2020). Similarly, 56% of the patients, who were

Received: 30 October 2020 Revised: 24 January 2022 Accepted: 3 February 2022

DOI: 10.1111/joca.12442

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits

use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or

adaptations are made.

© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Consumer Affairs published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Council on Consumer

Interests.

J Consum Aff. 2022;56:237–256. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joca 237

infected by the virus declared psychopathological signs, such as major depression and anxiety

disorders (Mazza et al., 2020). Among, those who experienced such anxiety, young adults were

particularly affected because they struggle more than older adults do with feelings of isolation

(Mumphrey & Sinco Kelleher, 2020). These figures emphasize the alarming consequences of

the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, primarily for young adults, who are more likely to

experience anxiety than the rest of the population (Terlizzi & Villarroel, 2020). Such a context

of deep uncertainty and anxiety due to the COVID-19 pandemic might render people lost and

helpless—or emotionally overwhelmed and not able to move on (Lifshin et al., 2020)—and

make the situation difficult to accept.

Beyond affective states, the COVID-19 pandemic has also affected eating habits negatively.

For example, in the United States, in the week of March 13, 2020, sales for potato chips and

popcorn rose by 30% and 48% respectively (Skerritt et al., 2020). Similarly, a large French study,

conducted in late April 2020, shows that 57% of the participants declared weight gain (2 kg on

average for 34% of them), since the beginning of the lockdown (IFOP, 2020). Additional studies

observed similar trends in Greece, Italy, and Spain, pointing toward anxiety as responsible for

these unhealthy eating behaviors (Di Renzo et al., 2020; Papandreou et al., 2020). Because of

the critical effect of weight gain on health, the UK acted by adopting anti-obesity policies, such

as strict regulations on junk food price promotion, TV and online advertisements to protect

overweight or obese consumers, who are of higher health risk when affected by COVID-19

(Hughes & Neville, 2020).

Given this alarming impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological well-being and eat-

ing disorders, this research investigates the effect of anxiety on vice food and beverage con-

sumption, the type of food that provides short-term benefits (e.g., the pleasures derived from

eating candies, cookies, pizzas, sodas, etc.) but negatively affects long-term health (Mishra &

Mishra, 2011; Wertenbroch, 1998). More specifically, the focus is on examining whether anxiety

leads or not to more vice food and beverage being consumed and the coping mechanisms that

can explain this effect. Due to the recency of the COVID-19 crisis, very little consumer research

has to date examined the effect of the widespread negative emotion of anxiety on dietary disor-

ders during the pandemic. Despite an impressive body of research on coping in this context of a

sanitary crisis—as evidenced by a Google Scholar search of “coping strategies AND COVID-19

pandemic,”which returned an impressive 78,500 publications in 2021

1

—the reasons, why anxi-

ety affects vice food and beverage consumption thus remain unclear. Some people might focus

on the negative aspects of the crisis (Torales et al., 2020), while others may rather engage in pos-

itive coping strategies, such as acceptance and positive reinterpretation (Carver et al., 1989;

Duhachek, 2005). Public policymakers and health institutions could thus benefit from getting a

clearer understanding of whether anxiety, and how coping with it, undermines people from reg-

ulating their consumption of vice food and beverages.

Therefore, the goals of this article are to (1) investigate, in Study 1, the feeling of helpless-

ness as the mechanism that explains the effect of anxiety on acceptance and (2) unveil, in Study

2, the serial mediating roles of such acceptance and positive reinterpretation in the effect of anx-

iety on vice food and beverage consumption. To this end, the next section develops the theoriza-

tion of the article, followed by an online experiment (Study 1) based on a population of young

adults from the UK. More specifically, Study 1 establishes causality and unveils helplessness as

the underlying mechanism that leads anxious individuals to lower acceptance of the pandemic

situation and consequent less positive reinterpretation. After, establishing the role of helpless-

ness in Study 1, Study 2 focuses on the mediating roles of such acceptance and positive reinter-

pretation. Study 2 was conducted in a French business school (N=1006) in April 2020 during

238 JAUD AND LUNARDO