Meaning-Making in the Face of Intersecting Catastrophes: COVID-19 and the Plague of Inequality.

Beyond the enormous toll in illness and death, the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed multiple additional problems (job loss, evictions, hunger) that are disproportionately borne by those who were already vulnerable. In this essay, I reflect about these intersecting catastrophes, which I see as undermining the capacities of many to live meaningful and fulfilling lives. Symptoms of these problems are growing "deaths of despair" due to suicide, drug and alcohol addictions. Drawing on multidisciplinary science, I suggest that these widespread problems cannot be ministered to by focusing only at the individual level. Structural factors, including unfair distributions of resources and opportunities demand attention as well because they are fueling growing disparities between the privileged and the disadvantaged segments of contemporary societies. I examine what meanings and emotions are relevant responses to these troubled times, giving emphasis to the legitimacy of anger and outrage in the face of suffering and injustice. Further insight is sought in historical accounts of longstanding tensions between self-interest and the social contract. Going forward, I suggest that these turbulent times call for greater engagement with and scientific understanding of the arts and humanities in activating the deepest corners of our humanity. Examples from past and current art dealing with human suffering, inequality, and plagues illustrate their possible role in nurturing human capacities to understand, to care, and to act.

Culture and Health: Recent Developments and Future Directions.

Evidence of cultural differences in relationships and emotions has accumulated over the past few decades. As findings on cultural differences in psychological processes have accumulated, there has been growing interest in investigating whether they have implications for other phenomena such as health. Using scientific advances from the MIDUS and MIDJA studies, both publicly available, we examine links between culture and health. We first briefly review the accumulated evidence on cultural influences on health correlates of psychosocial factors. We then feature two recent developments - a more micro-level perspective on biological factors that may be involved in the culture and health linkage, and a more macro-level view of socioeconomic inequality, which also matters for health. Both perspectives inform the pathways through which health effects occur. Finally, we conclude our review by highlighting the changing historical contexts surrounding these cross-cultural investigations. Specifically, we draw attention to widening of economic inequality across cultures and the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic. These happenings bring notable implications for future research on health across cultural contexts.

Psychological distress and well-being among sensory impaired individuals during COVID-19 lockdown measures.

PURPOSE: Hearing and vision impairment are prevalent chronic conditions associated with poorer mental health. Limitations of in-person contacts during COVID-19-related lockdown measures may affect those with sensory impairments more severely exacerbating mental health problems. We aimed to determine whether hearing and/or visual impairment were associated with more psychological distress during a time of lockdown measures in Spring/Summer 2020 in Wisconsin. METHODS: We included 1341(64% women, aged 20-92 years) Survey of the Health of Wisconsin COVID-19 survey participants (May 2020-July,2020). We assessed self-reported current mental health and well-being and vision and hearing impairment. Logistic regression models with sensory impairments as determinants and mental health outcomes were adjusted for age, gender, race, education, heart disease, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. RESULTS: Vision impairment was associated with increased odds of generalized anxiety disorder (odds ratio = 2.10; 95% confidence interval = 1.32-3.29) and depressive symptoms (2.57;1.58-4.11), greater likelihood to report loneliness (1.65;1.00-2.64) and hopelessness (1.45;1.01-2.08). Hearing impaired individuals reported more loneliness (1.80;1.05-2.98) and hopelessness (1.42;0.99-2.03). Exploratory analyses revealed that sensory impaired individuals less often chose walking as a coping strategy during the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with sensory impairment may represent a particularly vulnerable population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research should determine underlying reasons and interventions to mitigate this populations' disadvantages.

The pandemic and social experience: For whom did discrimination and social isolation increase?

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine whether experiences of discrimination have increased during the pandemic, particularly among negatively stigmatized racial/ethnic groups, and whether such experiences have exacerbated feelings of social isolation. METHOD: Discrimination and social isolation were assessed before and during the pandemic in a sample of 263 Black and White young adults attending a large, predominantly White 4-year research university in the Southeastern region of the United States (52% Black, 48% White, 53% female, mean age = 19.2). RESULTS: Increases in discrimination were evident among Black but not White participants. Black participants also reported greater increases in social isolation than White participants, and changes in discrimination partially mediated the emergent racial disparity in social isolation. CONCLUSIONS: Findings are consistent with theoretical perspectives on discrimination during times of stress and suggest the need for broader attention to the impact of the pandemic on unfair treatment of stigmatized groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).