IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/76me2.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Mental Health and Economic Concerns from March to May during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Zajacova, Anna
  • Jehn, Anthony
  • Stackhouse, Matthew
  • Choi, Kate H.
  • Denice, Patrick
  • Haan, Michael
  • Ramos, Howard

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the psychological wellbeing of populations worldwide. In this study, we assess changes in mental health during the early months of the pandemic in Canada and examine its relationship with another prominent problem during this time, economic concerns. Methods Analyses were based on two nationally representative cross-sectional surveys from the Canadian Perspectives Survey Series (N=4,627 in March and 4,600 in May). We described the changes in mental health and economic concerns between March and May, and assessed the relationship between the two characteristics. Results Mental health declined significantly during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic: the proportion of Canadian adults who reported only good/fair/poor mental health grew from 46% to 52% from March to May. Economic concerns including food insecurity were an important correlate of ‘bad’ mental health, as was younger age, female gender, and Canada-born status. Contrary to expectations, however, economic concerns lessened during this time frame. Conclusions These findings suggest that policies to mitigate economic stress, such as Canada’s Emergency Response Benefit, may have eased mental health deterioration in early pandemic months through a reduction in financial hardship. Interventions to increase the economic security of the population will have far-reaching consequences in terms of improved mental health, and should be continued throughout the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Zajacova, Anna & Jehn, Anthony & Stackhouse, Matthew & Choi, Kate H. & Denice, Patrick & Haan, Michael & Ramos, Howard, 2020. "Mental Health and Economic Concerns from March to May during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada," SocArXiv 76me2, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:76me2
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/76me2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/5f88bc4037b6bb01ba309281/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/76me2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Royston, Patrick & White, Ian R., 2011. "Multiple Imputation by Chained Equations (MICE): Implementation in Stata," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 45(i04).
    2. Richard Williams, 2012. "Using the margins command to estimate and interpret adjusted predictions and marginal effects," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 12(2), pages 308-331, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Asada, Yukiko & Grignon, Michel & Hurley, Jeremiah & Stewart, Samuel A. & Smith, Nathan K. & Kirkland, Susan & McMillan, Jacqueline & Griffith, Lauren E. & Wolfson, Christina & Raina, Parminder, 2023. "Trajectories of the socioeconomic gradient of mental health: Results from the CLSA COVID-19 Questionnaire Study," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    2. Tasos Stylianou & Konstantinos Ntelas, 2023. "Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Socioeconomic Aspects in Greece," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-21, January.
    3. Kathrin Durizzo & Edward Asiedu & Antoinette van der Merwe & Isabel Günther, 2022. "Economic Recovery but Stagnating Mental Health During a Global Pandemic? Evidence from Ghana and South Africa," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(2), pages 563-589, June.
    4. Louise C. Mâsse & Iyoma Y. Edache & Mark Pitblado & Sarah M. Hutchison, 2021. "The Impact of Financial and Psychological Wellbeing on Children’s Physical Activity and Screen-Based Activities during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-11, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iemmi, Valentina, 2021. "Global collective action in mental health financing: Allocation of development assistance for mental health in 142 countries, 2000–2015," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    2. Paccagnella, Omar & Pongiglione, Benedetta, 2022. "Depression deterioration of older adults during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    3. William Magee, 2023. "Earnings, Intersectional Earnings Inequality, Disappointment in One’s Life Achievements and Life (Dis)satisfaction," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 373-396, January.
    4. Sakaue, Katsuki, 2018. "Informal fee charge and school choice under a free primary education policy: Panel data evidence from rural Uganda," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 112-127.
    5. Rouse, Heather L. & Choi, Ji Young & Riser, Quentin H. & Beecher, Constance C., 2020. "Multiple risks, multiple systems, and academic achievement: A nationally representative birth-to-five investigation," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    6. Birgitte Grøgaard & Asmund Rygh & Gabriel R. G. Benito, 2019. "Bringing corporate governance into internalization theory: State ownership and foreign entry strategies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(8), pages 1310-1337, October.
    7. Elena Ellmeier & Melanie Koch & Thomas Scheiber, 2023. "Saving behavior along the income distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic," Focus on European Economic Integration, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue Q1/23, pages 7-21.
    8. Dudek Hanna & Wojewódzka-Wiewiórska Agnieszka, 2024. "Housing Deprivation Among Polish Households: Prevalence and Associated Factors," Real Estate Management and Valuation, Sciendo, vol. 32(2), pages 58-69.
    9. Craig Gundersen & David R. Just & Fei Men, 2017. "Mothers' Within-Marriage Economic Prospects and Later Food Security: Does Marital Outcome Matter?," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 682-702, November.
    10. K. P. Kannan, 2022. "India’s Elusive Quest for Inclusive Development: An Employment Perspective," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(3), pages 579-623, September.
    11. Brache, Jose & Felzensztein, Christian, 2019. "Exporting firm’s engagement with trade associations: Insights from Chile," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 25-35.
    12. KIZILCA, F. Kemal, 2013. "Booze and women: Gendering labor market outcomes of secular consumption patterns in a Muslim society," MPRA Paper 60134, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Nov 2014.
    13. Allain, Marie-Laure & Chambolle, Claire & Rey, Patrick & Teyssier, Sabrina, 2021. "Vertical integration as a source of hold-up: An experiment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    14. Hiramatsu, Tomoko & Marshall, Maria I., 2017. "The effect of Small Business Administration (SBA) Disaster Loans on Revenues of Small Businesses in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina," 2017 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2017, Mobile, Alabama 252713, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    15. Efing, Matthias, 2015. "Arbitraging the Basel securitization framework: Evidence from German ABS investment," Discussion Papers 40/2015, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    16. Liu, Yulong & Yu, Yang, 2018. "Institutions, firm resources and the foreign establishment mode choices of Chinese firms: The moderating role of home regional institutional development," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 111-121.
    17. Zhang, Yameng & Sharma, Piyush & Xu, Yekun & Zhan, Wu, 2021. "Challenges in internationalization of R&D teams: Impact of foreign technocrats in top management teams on firm innovations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 728-741.
    18. Anna Garriga & Sebastià Sarasa & Paolo Berta, 2015. "Mother’s educational level and single motherhood: Comparing Spain and Italy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 33(42), pages 1165-1210.
    19. Blind, Knut & Petersen, Sören S. & Riillo, Cesare A.F., 2017. "The impact of standards and regulation on innovation in uncertain markets," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 249-264.
    20. Nerea Gómez-Fernández & Mauro Mediavilla, 2018. "Do information and communication technologies (ICT) improve educational outcomes? Evidence for Spain in PISA 2015," Working Papers 2018/20, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:76me2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.