The Mental Health of a Society in Crisis: Complaints of Depression and Anxiety

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to examine the change in anxiety and feelings of depression within the Turkish population, including the factors behind these changes, during the most intense period of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Data were collected online from a population with similar characteristics using the convenience sampling method at the beginning of the pandemic (2020) and during its second year (2021). After parsing the data, a total of 9,369 questionnaires were evaluated. The Anxiety and Depressive Complaints questionnaire was prepared based on the conditions related to COVID-19. The scale was produced by selecting from a large set of questions using Factor Analysis (FA). The Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) values of the measurement tool fell within the acceptable limits. It was observed that both anxiety and feelings of depression were extraordinarily high during this period. The data showed that gender, family communication problems, trust in the state, fear of losing one's job, religious involvement, and time had predictive effects on anxiety. All the predictive variables for anxiety also had significant effects on depressive complaints. Age, household income, and living in rural or urban areas were also determined to be predictive for depressive complaints.