Associations between mental health and job loss among middle- and low-income veterans and civilians during the COVID-19 pandemic: An exploratory study.
Stress Health
; 38(2): 410-416, 2022 Apr.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1427213
ABSTRACT
This study examined the relationship between job loss and mental health during the pandemic among a nationally representative sample of middle- and low-income military veterans and civilians. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk in May-June 2020. Our sample was comparable to the U.S. population with respect to key demographics (i.e., sex, race, ethnicity, and geographic region). More veterans were male (36.9% civilians vs. 74.1% veterans), and on average they were older than civilians (Mcivilians = 47.86 vs. Mveterans = 52.64). After controlling for sociodemographic factors, probable anxiety (adjusted odds ratio for veterans = 1.96, 95% [1.22-3.15]) was significantly associated with job loss among veterans, whereas among civilians, probable anxiety (adjusted odds ratio for civilians [AORc ] = 1.48, 95% [1.21-1.81]), probable COVID-19 era-related stress (AORc = 1.73, 95% [1.45-2.07]), and loneliness (AORc = 1.09, 95% [1.04-1.13]) were associated with job loss. Results demonstrated that veteran sample's effect sizes were larger than civilian sample's effect sizes; however, our moderation analyses results revealed that veteran status did not moderate the relationships between mental health and job loss. The findings in this study support a relationship between job loss and poorer mental health, suggesting that increased mental health services may be important to address ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Veterans
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
Limits:
Humans
/
Male
Language:
English
Journal:
Stress Health
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Smi.3099
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