Associations between Coronavirus Crisis Perception, Perceived Economic Risk of Coronavirus, General Self-Efficacy, and Coronavirus Anxiety at the Start of the Pandemic: Differences by Gender and Race

Samantha Garcia, Suellen Hopfer, Elouise Botes and Samuel Greiff
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Samantha Garcia: Program in Public Health, Department of Health, Society & Behavior, Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
Suellen Hopfer: Program in Public Health, Department of Health, Society & Behavior, Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
Elouise Botes: Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria
Samuel Greiff: Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, University of Luxembourg, 4366 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 5, 1-15

Abstract: The coronavirus pandemic has escalated rates of anxiety in the general U.S. population. Understanding how factors associated with coronavirus anxiety at the start of the pandemic differed among populations hardest impacted by coronavirus anxiety is key to effectively remediating negatively associated health outcomes and to better understand how to address concerns of the public at the start of a global pandemic. This study was a secondary analysis of data from a cross-sectional online survey of 1165 Prolific users between 13 and 15 March 2020. Data were collected from a stratified sample of U.S. adults aged 20 or older and currently living in the United States. The sample was stratified for age, gender, and race. Coronavirus anxiety was assessed as the dependent variable, alongside three independent variables: coronavirus crisis perception, perceived economic risk of coronavirus, and general self-efficacy. Multiple linear regression assessed the associations between the independent variables and coronavirus anxiety. Interactions between independent variables and two sociodemographic variables (i.e., gender, race) were also explored. The models were adjusted for age, gender, race, education, employment, and income. The average age of participants was 45.6 ± 15.7. The majority (76%) identified as White, approximately half identified as female and reported obtaining a bachelor’s degree or higher. Coronavirus crisis perception and perceived economic risk of coronavirus were positively associated with coronavirus anxiety (β = 0.46, 95% CI = 0.41, 1.00; β = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.09, 1.00, respectively). General self-efficacy was negatively associated with coronavirus anxiety (β = −0.15, 95% CI = −1.00, −0.11). Gender and race both moderated the association between coronavirus crisis perception and anxiety. Race moderated the association between perceived economic risk and coronavirus crisis perception. These results provide a foundation to further explore cognitive factors in subgroups disproportionately affected by anxiety during the pandemic.

Keywords: anxiety; pandemic; self-efficacy; gender; race; disparities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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