Mental Health among Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown: A Cross-Sectional Multi-Country Comparison

Kele Ding, Jingzhen Yang, Ming-Kai Chin, Lindsay Sullivan, Giyasettin Demirhan, Veronica Violant-Holz, Ricardo R. Uvinha, Jianhui Dai, Xia Xu, Biljana Popeska, Zornitza Mladenova, Waheeda Khan, Garry Kuan, Govindasamy Balasekaran, Gary A. Smith and on behalf of Global Community Health–COVID-19 Collaborative Research Team
Additional contact information
Kele Ding: School of Health Science, College of Education Health & Human Service, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA
Jingzhen Yang: Center for Injury Research and Policy, The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, OH 43205, USA
Ming-Kai Chin: Foundation for Global Community Health, Las Vegas, NV 89012, USA
Lindsay Sullivan: Discipline of Children’s Studies, School of Education, National University of Ireland, H91 Galway, Ireland
Giyasettin Demirhan: Department of Physical Education and Sport Teaching, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Hacettepe University, Ankara 06420, Turkey
Veronica Violant-Holz: Department of Didactics and Educative Organization, University of Barcelona, 08015 Barcelona, Spain
Ricardo R. Uvinha: School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo 01310, Brazil
Jianhui Dai: School of Physical Education and Sports, Soochow University, Suzhou 215021, China
Xia Xu: Hubei Key Laboratory of Sport Training and Monitoring, Wuhan Sports University, Wuhan 430021, China
Biljana Popeska: Faculty of Educational Sciences, Goce Delcev University, 2000 Stip, North Macedonia
Zornitza Mladenova: Association of Touristic Animators, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
Waheeda Khan: Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, SGT University, Gurugram 122505, India
Garry Kuan: Exercise and Sports Science, School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian 16150, Malaysia
Govindasamy Balasekaran: National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 178957, Singapore
Gary A. Smith: Center for Injury Research and Policy, The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, OH 43205, USA
on behalf of Global Community Health–COVID-19 Collaborative Research Team: Members listed at end of report.

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 5, 1-16

Abstract: Despite the global impact of COVID-19, studies comparing the effects of COVID-19 on population mental health across countries are sparse. This study aimed to compare anxiety and depression symptoms during the COVID-19 lockdown among adults from 11 countries and to examine their associations with country-level COVID-19 factors and personal COVID-19 exposure. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among adults (?18 years) in 11 countries (Brazil, Bulgaria, China, India, Ireland, North Macedonia, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Turkey, United States). Mental health (anxiety, depression, resilient coping, hope) and other study data were collected between June–August 2020. Of the 13,263 participants, 62.8% were female and 51.7% were 18–34 years old. Participants living in Brazil had the highest anxiety and depression symptoms while participants living in Singapore had the lowest. Greater personal COVID-19 exposure was associated with increased anxiety and depression symptoms, but country-level COVID-19 factors were not. Higher levels of hope were associated with reduced anxiety and depression; higher levels of resilient coping were associated with reduced anxiety but not depression. Substantial variations exist in anxiety and depression symptoms across countries during the COVID-19 lockdown, with personal COVID-19 exposure being a significant risk factor. Strategies that mitigate COVID-19 exposure and enhance hope and resilience may reduce anxiety and depression during global emergencies.

Keywords: COVID-19; mental health; anxiety; depression; multi-country; resilient coping; hope; adults (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2686/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2686/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:5:p:2686-:d:512262

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().