COVID-19 mitigation policies and psychological distress in young adults
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen an unusually high proportion of the population suffering from mental health difficulties, but of particular concern is the disproportionate increase in psychological distress among younger adults. In this article, we exploit an explanatory sequential mixed-methods desi...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2022-12-01
|
| Series: | SSM - Mental Health |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266656032100027X |
| _version_ | 1797975796575371264 |
|---|---|
| author | Michelle Jackson Joanna Lee Williams |
| author_facet | Michelle Jackson Joanna Lee Williams |
| author_sort | Michelle Jackson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The COVID-19 pandemic has seen an unusually high proportion of the population suffering from mental health difficulties, but of particular concern is the disproportionate increase in psychological distress among younger adults. In this article, we exploit an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design to examine which aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic 18-25-year-olds found most challenging. We report analyses of American Voices Project (AVP) qualitative in-depth interview data, a MyVoice text-message open-ended survey, and Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey (HPS) data, all collected in 2020. Our interview and text-message results show that young adults were distressed about the effects of COVID-19 on the health of loved ones and older Americans. Young adults expressed concerns that the pandemic was not being treated sufficiently seriously by some politicians and the general public. The policy response was seen to be inadequate to the task of containing the disease, and some feared that the pandemic would never end. Statistical analyses of the HPS confirm that young adults’ scores on the HPS’s anxiety scale were significantly negatively associated with state-level policy responses. Overall, our results show that young adults found virus mitigation strategies challenging, but that a strong policy response was associated with reduced levels of psychological distress. Our results suggest that public health policy might have also operated as mental health policy during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T04:41:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-45a891e17d124f8195c14ade56403cca |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2666-5603 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T04:41:08Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | SSM - Mental Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-45a891e17d124f8195c14ade56403cca2022-12-28T04:19:33ZengElsevierSSM - Mental Health2666-56032022-12-012100027COVID-19 mitigation policies and psychological distress in young adultsMichelle Jackson0Joanna Lee Williams1Department of Sociology, 450 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford University, CA, 94305, USA; Corresponding author.Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University, 152 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ, 08854-8020, USAThe COVID-19 pandemic has seen an unusually high proportion of the population suffering from mental health difficulties, but of particular concern is the disproportionate increase in psychological distress among younger adults. In this article, we exploit an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design to examine which aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic 18-25-year-olds found most challenging. We report analyses of American Voices Project (AVP) qualitative in-depth interview data, a MyVoice text-message open-ended survey, and Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey (HPS) data, all collected in 2020. Our interview and text-message results show that young adults were distressed about the effects of COVID-19 on the health of loved ones and older Americans. Young adults expressed concerns that the pandemic was not being treated sufficiently seriously by some politicians and the general public. The policy response was seen to be inadequate to the task of containing the disease, and some feared that the pandemic would never end. Statistical analyses of the HPS confirm that young adults’ scores on the HPS’s anxiety scale were significantly negatively associated with state-level policy responses. Overall, our results show that young adults found virus mitigation strategies challenging, but that a strong policy response was associated with reduced levels of psychological distress. Our results suggest that public health policy might have also operated as mental health policy during the COVID-19 pandemic.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266656032100027XYoung adultsPsychological distressCOVID-19Policy response |
| spellingShingle | Michelle Jackson Joanna Lee Williams COVID-19 mitigation policies and psychological distress in young adults SSM - Mental Health Young adults Psychological distress COVID-19 Policy response |
| title | COVID-19 mitigation policies and psychological distress in young adults |
| title_full | COVID-19 mitigation policies and psychological distress in young adults |
| title_fullStr | COVID-19 mitigation policies and psychological distress in young adults |
| title_full_unstemmed | COVID-19 mitigation policies and psychological distress in young adults |
| title_short | COVID-19 mitigation policies and psychological distress in young adults |
| title_sort | covid 19 mitigation policies and psychological distress in young adults |
| topic | Young adults Psychological distress COVID-19 Policy response |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266656032100027X |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT michellejackson covid19mitigationpoliciesandpsychologicaldistressinyoungadults AT joannaleewilliams covid19mitigationpoliciesandpsychologicaldistressinyoungadults |