Inter-Parental Conflict’s Persistent Effects on Adolescent Psychological Distress, Adjustment Issues, and Suicidal Ideation During the COVID-19 Lockdown

The current study sought to ascertain the impact of inter-parent conflicts on teenage psychological distress, social and academic adjustment and examine the suicide ideation during the COVID-19. The results found to be alarming as 22% of the individuals displayed suicidal tendencies, with 9% having attempted suicide once, 4.6% having tried suicide twice, and 11% stating that they were likely to do so again. Therefore, the media and the government might host awareness programs and counseling initiatives to promote mental health and prevent suicidal behavior. Moreover, parents may be educated on community level, about the effect of inter-parental arguments on the mental health of their children.

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Assessing the Impact of School-Based Greenness on Mental Health Among Adolescent Students in Ontario, Canada

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph16224364 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (22) ◽

pp. 4364 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Sebastian Srugo ◽

Margaret de Groh ◽

Ying Jiang ◽

Howard Morrison ◽

Hayley Hamilton ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Psychological Distress ◽

Suicide Attempt ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Suicide Ideation ◽

Postal Code ◽

Serious Psychological Distress ◽

School Based ◽

Distress Scale ◽

The Impact

Neighbourhood greenness has been frequently associated with improved mental health in adulthood, yet its impact among youth is less clear. Additionally, though youth spend large portions of time at school, no study has investigated associations between school-based measures of greenness and students’ mental health in Canada. We addressed this gap by linking participant responses from the 2016–2017 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey to school-based features of the built environment. Our analyses included 6313 students, ages 11–20. Measures of greenness were the mean and max of the annual mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index within 500 m and 1000 m from the centroid of the school postal code. Measures of mental health included: serious psychological distress (Kessler 6-item Psychological Distress Scale), self-rated mental health (using a five-point Likert scale), suicide ideation, and suicide attempt. In our study population, the prevalence of serious psychological distress and low self-rated mental health was 16.7% and 20.3%, respectively. Suicide ideation was reported by 13.5% of participants, while 3.7% reported a suicide attempt. Quantity of greenness was similar between schools in the lower and upper quartiles. In logistic regressions, we found no association between objective school-based greenness and mental health, as assessed by multiple measures, both before and after adjustment. Null findings held true after stratification by season, as well. Whether other characteristics of school greenness (such as type, quality, or access and use) are more impactful to students’ mental health should be a focus of future analyses.

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Mechanisms of COVID-19 Mental Health Burden

10.31234/osf.io/cswde ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Joseph Bulbulia ◽

Sofia Piven ◽

Fiona Barlow ◽

Don E. Davis ◽

Lara Greaves ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Psychological Distress ◽

Fold Increase ◽

Health Satisfaction ◽

Civic Attitudes ◽

Social Belonging ◽

Pervasive Health ◽

The Government ◽

Health Burdens ◽

Political Economic

New Zealand's COVID-19 lockdown in March and April 2020 was among the world's most stringent. Similar to other countries, New Zealand's lockdown occurred amidst pervasive health and economic uncertainties. However, New Zealanders experienced comparatively less psychological distress. To test theories of pandemic distress mitigation, we use national longitudinal responses with pre-COVID-19 baselines and systematically quantify psychological distress trajectories within the same individuals during the lockdown (pre-COVID-19 = 2018/2019; stringent-lockdown = March/April 2020; N = 940). Most distress indicators were minimally elevated. However, there was a three-fold increase in feelings of worthlessness. Neither satisfaction with the government, nor business-satisfaction, nor a sense of neighbourhood community were effective distress defences. Perceived social-belonging and health-satisfaction mitigated feelings of worthlessness. A silver lining was a relief from feelings of effort, which social-belonging fostered. That social-belonging and health satisfaction could quell serious distress among those low in government confidence, low in business satisfaction, and low neighbourhood community proves that distress mitigation is possible without shifting a population's general political, economic, and civic attitudes. Protection of income and containment of infectious disease threat reduces mental health burdens. Though feelings of worthlessness surge during lockdown, such feelings attenuate from interpersonal belonging with people one already knows.

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Corporate Environmental Performance in China: The Moderating Effects of the Media versus the Approach of Local Governments

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18010150 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 150

Author(s):

Zhiru Guo ◽

Chao Lu

Keyword(s):

Environmental Protection ◽

Environmental Performance ◽

Local Governments ◽

Random Effect ◽

Random Effect Model ◽

Corporate Environmental Performance ◽

Media Attention ◽

The Media ◽

The Government ◽

The Impact

This article selects the listed companies in China’s A-share heavy pollution industry from 2014 to 2018 as samples, uses a random effect model to empirically test the relationship between media attention and corporate environmental performance and examines the impacts of local government environmental protection and property nature on that relationship. Results are as follow: (1) Media attention can significantly affect a company’s environmental performance. The higher the media attention, the greater the company’s supervision and the better its environmental performance. (2) In areas where the government pays less attention to environmental protection, the impact of media on corporate environmental performance is more obvious, but in other areas, the impact of media on environmental performance cannot be reflected; (3) The media attention is very significant for the environmental performance improvement of state-owned enterprises, and it is not obvious in non-state-owned enterprises. (4) A further breakdown of the study found that the role of media attention in corporate environmental performance is only significant in the sample of local governments that have low environmental protection and are state-owned enterprises. This research incorporates the local government’s emphasis on environmental protection into the research field of vision, expands the research scope of media and corporate environmental performance, and also provides new clues and evidence for promoting the active fulfillment of environmental protection responsibilities by companies and local governments.

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Suicidal Ideation and Predictors of Psychological Distress during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Eswatini: A Population-Based Household Telephone Survey

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18136700 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (13) ◽

pp. 6700

Author(s):

Mduduzi Colani Shongwe ◽

Song-Lih Huang

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Psychological Distress ◽

Suicidal Ideation ◽

Telephone Survey ◽

Population Based ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Psychological Distress Scale ◽

The Government ◽

Distress Scale

The unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic can induce psychological distress in individuals. We investigated perceived stressors, prevalence of psychological distress and suicidal ideation, and predictors of psychological distress among adults during the COVID-19 pandemic in Eswatini. This study was a cross-sectional, population-based household telephone survey of 993 conveniently sampled adults (18+ years) from all the four administrative regions of Eswatini. Data were collected between 9 June and 18 July 2020 during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the country was under a partial lockdown. COVID-19-related psychological distress was assessed using the Kessler 6-item Psychological Distress Scale (K6). We performed weighted modified Poisson regression analyses to identify significant predictors of moderate/severe psychological distress (K6 scores: ≥5). The weighted prevalences of moderate (K6 scores: 5–12) and severe psychological distress (K6 scores: ≥13) were 41.7% and 5.4%, respectively. Participants reported several perceived COVID-19-related stressors, including worries and fears of the contagion-specific death, serious need for food and money, and concerns about loss of income or business. The weighted prevalence of suicidal ideation was 1.5%. Statistically significant predictors of increased risk for moderate/severe psychological distress included living in the Hhohho and Manzini regions; feeling not well informed about COVID-19; feeling lonely; having received COVID-19 food or financial relief from the government; feeling burdened by the lockdown; being married; and being youth (18–24 years). The results call for the government to urgently augment the provision of mental health services during the pandemic. Mental health practitioners and programs may use several stressors and risk factors identified in this study to inform interventions and government policies aimed at reducing psychological distress induced by the pandemic.

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The relationship between exclusion from school and mental health: a secondary analysis of the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Surveys 2004 and 2007

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s003329171700215x ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 48 (4) ◽

pp. 629-641 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

T. Ford ◽

C. Parker ◽

J. Salim ◽

R. Goodman ◽

S. Logan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Psychological Distress ◽

Psychiatric Disorder ◽

Health Surveys ◽

Secondary Analysis ◽

Adolescent Mental Health ◽

Child And Adolescent ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

BackgroundChildren with poor mental health often struggle at school. The relationship between childhood psychiatric disorder and exclusion from school has not been frequently studied, but both are associated with poor adult outcomes. We undertook a secondary analysis of the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Surveys from 2004 and its follow-up in 2007 to explore the relationship between exclusion from school and psychopathology. We predicted poorer mental health among those excluded.MethodPsychopathology was measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, while psychiatric disorder was assessed using the Development and Well-Being Assessment and applying Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM IV) criteria. Exclusion from school and socio-demographic characteristics were reported by parents. Multi-variable regression models were used to examine the impact of individual factors on exclusion from school or psychological distress.ResultsExclusion from school was commoner among boys, secondary school pupils and those living in socio-economically deprived circumstances. Poor general health and learning disability among children and poor parental mental health were also associated with exclusion. There were consistently high levels of psychological distress among those who had experienced exclusion at baseline and follow-up.ConclusionsWe detected a bi-directional association between psychological distress and exclusion. Efforts to identify and support children who struggle with school may therefore prevent both future exclusion and future psychiatric disorder.

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Impact of Postmigration Living Difficulties on the Mental Health of Afghan Migrants Residing in Istanbul

International Journal of Population Research ◽

10.1155/2016/7690697 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2016 ◽

pp. 1-8 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Qais Alemi ◽

Carl Stempel ◽

Kelly Baek ◽

Lisa Lares ◽

Patricia Villa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Psychological Distress ◽

Idioms Of Distress ◽

Hierarchical Regression ◽

Foreign Countries ◽

Legal Challenges ◽

Culturally Sensitive Interventions ◽

Negative Effect ◽

The Impact ◽

Afghan Migrants

Background. The sociopolitical situation in Afghanistan continually pushes Afghans to seek safety and better socioeconomic prospects in neighboring and foreign countries. In this paper we examine the mental health of Afghan migrants residing in Istanbul, Turkey, an understudied population at high risk of psychopathology. Methods. We surveyed 158 Afghan migrants to assess psychological distress using a culturally grounded measure of mental health, the Afghan Symptom Checklist [ASCL], and used hierarchical regression analysis to examine the impact of postmigration living difficulties (PMLDs) on mental health. Results. We found that depressive, somatoform, anxiety-like symptoms occurred often, as did a number of culturally salient idioms of distress. Regression analyses showed that while socioeconomic variables and poor physical health status significantly predicted psychological distress, PMLDs exerted the strongest negative effect. The most pressing PMLDs for Afghans in Turkey are poverty, unemployment, lack of treatment for health problems, fears of being deported and related legal challenges, and family-related stressors. Conclusion. Our results point to the importance of the critical need to create culturally sensitive interventions to remediate high levels of psychological distress by addressing related PMLD stressors in a highly vulnerable Afghan migrant population residing in Turkey.

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Killing in Combat; the Diverging Mental Health Impact on Distinct Veteran Populations – A Two-Sample Study

10.31234/osf.io/4g9fb ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Andreas Espetvedt Nordstrand ◽

Christer Lunde Gjerstad ◽

Odin Hjemdal ◽

Are Holen ◽

Tore Tveitstul ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Mental Health ◽

Psychological Distress ◽

Alcohol Use ◽

Posttraumatic Stress ◽

Armed Forces ◽

Mental States ◽

Two Samples ◽

The Impact

This study examined the warzone stressors: killing in combat, experiencing personal threats, or traumatic witnessing during deployment in relation to psychological distress, alcohol consumption and quality of life at long-term follow-up. The study was conducted in two samples of Norwegian veterans who had served in Afghanistan (Study 1, N = 4,053) or in Lebanon (Study 2, N = 10,605), respectively. Data were collected through two postdeployment mental health surveys conducted by the Norwegian Armed Forces Joint Medical Services. Using linear regressions, we investigated the impact of warzone stressors on posttraumatic stress symptoms, depression, anxiety, insomnia, alcohol use, and quality of life. In study 1 (Afghanistan veterans), killing was not a significant predictor of psychological distress, alcohol use, or quality of life, when controlling for Personal Threats and Witnessing exposure. In study 2 (Lebanon veterans) killing remained a significant predictor (p < .001) of symptoms of posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety, after controlling for other warzone stressors. However, killing was not a significant predictor of alcohol use or quality of life in Study 2. In summary, killing in combat may be associated with increased reports of psychological distress, but there were distinct results in the two studies. Differences in mission statements, rules of engagement, and mental states during combat could explain the diverging outcomes. The results indicate that it may be erroneous to ubiquitously regard killing in combat as a moral stressor, and highlight the importance of clear rules of engagements that accounts for the “on the ground” reality of soldiers.

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Impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of healthcare workers in different regions of the world

BJPsych Open ◽

10.1192/bjo.2021.689 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (S1) ◽

pp. S258-S258

Author(s):

Mahfuja Islam ◽

Philip George ◽

Sindhu Sankaran ◽

Janet Leu Su Hui ◽

Tzun Kit

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Care ◽

Psychological Distress ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Well Being ◽

Subjective Assessment ◽

Survey Tool ◽

Frontline Workers ◽

The World ◽

The Impact

AimsThe global health system is facing a serious challenge after the recent outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus infection which was first identified in Wuhan, China in November 2019 and declared as a pandemic in March 2020 by WHO. There is a wide consensus that this pandemic has negative psychosocial consequences as well as unforeseeable provision of mental health care services and just not on physical health alone. The aim of this research study is to determine the prevalence of psychological distress and to identify the sociodemographic variables with the main attributable factors associated with the psychological distress among healthcare workers and suggestions on how to reduce the impact on the mental health of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in different regions of the world.MethodWe performed a cross-sectional study from September-November 2020. We used a self-administered survey tool which was distributed electronically to healthcare workers across the globe. The data were stored on an online database with password protected devices where survey responses were restricted to investigators exclusively.Data collected were: 1) Socio-demographic data (age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, religion, role in the healthcare, region of practice); 2) Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWBI) questionnaire which contains 22 standardized items. This is a subjective assessment to score the degree of psychological well-being by focusing on 6 domains: depression; anxiety; positive-well-being; self-control; vitality and general health; 3) Subjective assessment from respondents of the main attributable factors causing psychological distress and suggested methods to help reduce the impact on mental health on health care workers.ResultMajority out of the 217 respondents were from a younger age group; females and married/domestic partnership, mainly from Western Pacific Region, South East Asian and the African Region. More than half the respondents were moderate-severely psychologically distressed and the three main attributable factors causing psychological distress were: fear of family/friends contracting COVID-19 followed by lack of PPE and discomfort caused by wearing PPE for long hours. Respondents suggested that the distress would be reduced if: more resources were provided in hospital; protocols and guidelines were implemented and counselling facilities with recreational activities were available to frontline workers.ConclusionThis study showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental health of healthcare workers and more support or strategies need to come in place to protect frontline workers at the time of crises.

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Influence of COVID-19 on the Mental Health of Nurses dealing with COVID-19 Patients (A Study on Nurses within Karachi)

10.53350/pjmhs211551200 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 (5) ◽

pp. 1200-1204

Author(s):

U. Amen ◽

Z. Rajwani ◽

U. Sumayya ◽

R. Haroon ◽

N. Mushtaq ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Psychological Distress ◽

Preventive Intervention ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Depression Anxiety Stress Scale ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Moderate Depression ◽

Study Results ◽

The Impact ◽

Severe Anxiety

Background: Globally Corona virus (COVID-19) has become a huge challenge for all of the population. In South Asia, country Pakistan city Karachi the 1st case of this breakdown was identified on 26th February 2020 (Waris et al., 2020). This disease has developed psychological distress among all the population. COVID virus is one of the leading threats to all the healthcare organizations and due to increase rate of patients day by day, it has given enormous burden to all healthcare workers especially nurses the front line fighters who are always ready to give care towards the patient whom they encountered so it’s very crucial part to assess the impact of COVID -19 on the mental health of the nurses. Objective: The objective of the study is to identify the frequency level of stress, anxiety and depression among nurses while dealing with those patients who were admitted in various hospitals in Karachi for treatment of COVID-19. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted from 20th November to 31st December 2020 from different hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan. Those Registered nurses who were assigned in isolation ward of Covid-19 were the part of the study. For data collection survey form was designed based on Depression Anxiety Stress scale (DASS-21) scale (Lovibond & Lovibond 1995). Results: The total mean score of depression among nurses was 50 (68%), Anxiety was 32 (43%) and stress was 34 (46%). 50 nurses suffered from moderate depression, 24 nurses reported from extremely severe anxiety and 50 nurses suffered from moderate stress level. From 74 participants 41(55.4%) were females and 33 (44.6%) were males. Furthermore, it shows that 25 (76%) males and 25 (61%) females suffered from moderate depression, 32 nurses 14 (42%) male and 18(43.90%) females reported from extremely severe anxiety. Conclusion: This pandemic is highly complex, contagious and vulnerable. The study results portrait that nurses working with COVID-19 patients have affected a lot of various psychological distress such as anxiety, stress, and depression. It is very vital for higher management to take major steps and take preventive intervention which would be beneficial towards their mental health in decreasing negative psychological outcomes, because they all are working under pressure environment. Key Words: Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Pandemic, Registered Nurse

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Who is Setting Emotions? A Comparative Study on Emotion Diffusion in Social Media among Public, Government and Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.27056 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Shuhuan Zhou ◽

Yi Wang

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Information Exchange ◽

Positive Emotions ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Chinese Government ◽

The Public ◽

The Media ◽

The Government ◽

The Impact ◽

Time Point

BACKGROUND During the COVID-19 outbreak, social media served as the main platform for information exchange, through which the Chinese government, media and public would spread information. At the same time, a variety of emotions interweave, and the public emotions would also be affected by the government and media. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate the types, trends and relationships of emotional diffusion in Chinese social media among the public, the government and the media under the pandemic of COVID-19 (December 30,2019, to July 1,2020) . METHODS In this paper, Python 3.7.0 and its data crawling framework Scrapy 1.5.1 are used to write a web crawler program to search for super topics related to COVID-19 on Sina Weibo platform of different keywords . Then, we used emotional lexicon to analyze the types and trends of the public, government and media emotions on social media. Finally cross-lagged regression was applied to build the relationships of different subjects’ emotions. RESULTS The highlights of our study are threefold: (1) The public, the government and the media mainly diffuse positive emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic in China; (2) Emotional diffusion shows a certain change over time, and negative emotions are obvious in the initial phase of the pandemic, with the development of the pandemic, positive emotions surpass negative emotions and remain stable. (3)The impact among the three main emotions with the period as the time point is weak, while the impact of emotion with the day as the time point is relatively obvious. The emotions of the public and the government impact each other, and the media emotions can guide the public emotions. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study of comparing pubic, government and media emotions on the social media during COVID-19 pandemic in China. The pubic, the government and the media mainly diffuse positive emotions during the pandemic. And the government and the media have better effect on short-term emotional guidance. Therefore, when the pandemic suddenly occurs, the government and the media should intervene in time to solve problems and conflicts and diffuse positive and neutral emotions. In this regard, the government and the media can play important roles through social media in the major outbreaks. At the theoretical level, this paper takes China's epidemic environment and social media as the background to provide one of the explanatory perspectives for the spread of emotions on social media. At the some time, because of this special background, it can provide comparison and reference for the research on internet emotions in other countries.

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