scholarly journals POSITIVE COGNITIVE TRIAD AND COVID-19 FEARS: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 510-526
Author(s):  
Md Hassan Jafri

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease has produced both physical and mental health crisis at an unprecedented level forcing the global community to take actions to deal with the pandemic. Various mental health issues have cropped up in people since the spread of the highly contagious disease. The present empirical study examined the role of the positive cognitive triad in coping with mental health problems, especially the fears of the pandemic. Using а cross-sectional research design, data were collected from the 240 participants in a northern state in India at the time when the positive cases were increasing. Regression analysis showed significant variation explained by positive cognitive triad on the outcome variable, i.e. positive cognitive triad reduces the perception of fears of the COVID-19 disease. The study revealed that the positive cognitive triad might be used as one of the coping strategies with the fears and anxiety of the disease. Regression analysis further revealed that two dimensions of the positive cognitive triad i.e. positive cognition of the self and positive cognition of the future, had a significantly negative influence on the fears of the disease. Thus, people who have positive cognition of the self and the future are less likely to experience fear of the novel COVID-19 diseases.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-105
Author(s):  
Avilasha Singh

Mental health has always been stigmatised and overlooked. Since, anxiety and stress are natural responses while facing a threat of new diseases. Hence, this pandemic has shown us the importance of mental health. During this time there have been many triggers that have caused repercussions in people’s mental health. Mental health crisis is on the rise. So, it is important to be able to tackle mental health problems as effectively as physical health problems, not only now but in the future as well, once and for all.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Marshall ◽  
Kate Lanyi ◽  
Rhiannon Green ◽  
Georgie Wilkins ◽  
Fiona Pearson ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND There is increasing need to explore the value of soft-intelligence, leveraged using the latest artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) techniques, as a source of analysed evidence to support public health research activity and decision-making. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to further explore the value of soft-intelligence analysed using AI through a case study, which examined a large collection of UK tweets relating to mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS A search strategy comprising a list of terms related to mental health, COVID-19, and lockdown restrictions was developed to prospectively collate relevant tweets via Twitter’s advanced search application programming interface over a 24-week period. We deployed a specialist NLP platform to explore tweet frequency and sentiment across the UK and identify key topics of discussion. A series of keyword filters were used to clean the initial data retrieved and also set up to track specific mental health problems. Qualitative document analysis was carried out to further explore and expand upon the results generated by the NLP platform. All collated tweets were anonymised RESULTS We identified and analysed 286,902 tweets posted from UK user accounts from 23 July 2020 to 6 January 2021. The average sentiment score was 50%, suggesting overall neutral sentiment across all tweets over the study period. Major fluctuations in volume and sentiment appeared to coincide with key changes to any local and/or national social-distancing measures. Tweets around mental health were polarising, discussed with both positive and negative sentiment. Key topics of consistent discussion over the study period included the impact of the pandemic on people’s mental health (both positively and negatively), fear and anxiety over lockdowns, and anger and mistrust toward the government. CONCLUSIONS Through the primary use of an AI-based NLP platform, we were able to rapidly mine and analyse emerging health-related insights from UK tweets into how the pandemic may be impacting people’s mental health and well-being. This type of real-time analysed evidence could act as a useful intelligence source that agencies, local leaders, and health care decision makers can potentially draw from, particularly during a health crisis.



Author(s):  
Sebastian Hinde ◽  
Laura Bojke ◽  
Peter Coventry

Internationally, shifts to more urbanised populations, and resultant reductions in engagements with nature, have been a contributing factor to the mental health crisis facing many developed and developing countries. While the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced recent trends in many countries to give access to green spaces more weight in political decision making, nature-based activities as a form of intervention for those with mental health problems constitute a very small part of patient pathways of care. Nature-based interventions, such as ecotherapy, are increasingly used as therapeutic solutions for people with common mental health problems. However, there is little data about the potential costs and benefits of ecotherapy, making it difficult to offer robust assessments of its cost-effectiveness. This paper explores the capacity for ecotherapy to be cost-effective as a healthcare intervention. Using a pragmatic scoping review of the literature to understand where the potential costs and health benefit lie, we applied value of information methodology to identify what research is needed to inform future cost-effectiveness assessments. We show that there is the potential for ecotherapy for people with mild to moderate common mental health problems to be cost-effective but significant further research is required. Furthermore, nature-based interventions such as ecotherapy also confer potential social and wider returns on investment, strengthening the case for further research to better inform robust commissioning.



2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gökmen Arslan ◽  
Murat Yıldırım ◽  
Mega M. Leung

Research Problem: The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a multi-faceted crisis worldwide. Researchers and health authorities in various parts of the world echoed the dire condition of the public's mental health. This study sought to examine the mediating effect of personal meaning on the association between coronavirus (COVID-19)-related suffering, mental health problems, and life satisfaction. Participants included 231 adults (mean age = 46.65 ± 13.98; 68% female) and completed measures of suffering related to COVID-19, meaning, life satisfaction, and mental health problems online.Results: Findings from mediation analysis showed that suffering had significant associations with personal meaning, mental health, and well-being. Furthermore, personal meaning was significantly associated with adults' mental health and well-being and mediated the negative effect of suffering on mental health and well-being.Discussion: Overall, results from this study indicate that personal meaning is an important promotive factor that may help to understand the negative effect of coronavirus-related suffering on mental health and well-being amid the public health crisis.



Author(s):  
Gopal K Singh ◽  
Hyunjung Lee ◽  
Romuladus E. Azuine

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial adverse impact on workers’ employment and physical and mental health. However, job losses, job-related household income shocks, and their related physical and mental health problems have not been well-documented. Using temporal, nationally representative data, this study examines inequalities in job-related income losses and their resultant health impact among US workers aged 18-64 years in different job sectors during the pandemic. Methods: Using April, August, and December 2020 rounds of the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey (N=56,156, 82,173, and 51,500), job-related income losses among workers in various job sectors and associated impacts on self-assessed health, depression, anxiety, worry, and lack of interest were analyzed by multivariable logistic regression. Results: In December 2020, 64.0% of self-employed and 66.3% of unemployed adults reported that they or someone in their household experienced a loss of employment income since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. This percentage was the lowest for the public sector (35.2%) and non-profit-sector (45.0%) workers. Job/income losses increased by 26% between April and December for workers in the private and non-profit sectors. Prevalence of fair/poor overall health, serious depression, serious anxiety, serious worry, and serious lack of interest increased substantially during the pandemic for workers in all sectors, with the self-employed, those in the family business, and the unemployed experiencing the highest risk and those in the government/public and non-profit sectors experiencing the lowest risk of poor physical and mental health. Workers in all sectors reporting job-related income losses experienced approximately 2-to-4-fold higher odds of poor overall health, serious depression, serious anxiety, serious worry, and serious lack of interest, compared to public-sector workers with no job/income losses, controlling for covariates. Conclusion and Implications for Translation: Job-related income losses and prevalence of poor overall health and mental health among workers in all sectors increased markedly during the pandemic, with the self-employed, family business, and unemployed workers being especially vulnerable to poor health, depression, anxiety, and stress.   Copyright © 2021 Singh, et al. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in this journal, is properly cited.





2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro C. Hallal ◽  
Jeovany Martínez-Mesa ◽  
Carolina V.N. Coll ◽  
Grégore I. Mielke ◽  
Márcio A. Mendes ◽  
...  

Aim:To evaluate the longitudinal association between physical activity behavior at 11 years of age and the incidence of mental health problems from 11 to 15 years of age.Methods:Individuals born in the city of Pelotas, Brazil, in 1993 have been followed up since birth. At 11 and 15 years of age, mental health was assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). At 11 years of age, physical activity was assessed through a validated questionnaire. The continuous SDQ score at 15 years was used as the outcome variable. The main exposure was physical activity behavior at 11 years of age divided into 3 categories (0, 1−299, >300 min/wk).Results:The incidence of mental health problems from 11 to 15 years was 13.6% (95% CI, 12.4−14.9). At 11 years, 35.2% of the adolescents achieved 300 min/wk of physical activity. In the unadjusted analysis, physical activity was inversely related to mental health problems (P = .04). After adjustment for confounders, the association was no longer significant in the whole sample but was still significant among boys.Conclusion:Physical activity appears to be inversely related to mental health problems in adolescence, but the magnitude of the association is weak to moderate.



2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 1501-1523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan W. Cody ◽  
Judiann M. Jones ◽  
Matthew J. Woodward ◽  
Catherine A. Simmons ◽  
J. Gayle Beck

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has potentially severe and long-lasting mental health consequences for survivors, including elevated symptoms and diagnoses of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The current study examined the relationship between three self-report measures of psychological distress and ratings obtained from the corresponding clinician-administered measures in women seeking assessment for mental health problems following IPV ( N = 185). PTSD symptoms were assessed using the self-report Impact of Event Scale–Revised (IES-R) and the interview-based Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). Depression symptoms were assessed using the self-report Beck Depression Inventory–II (BDI-II) and the depressive disorders sections from the clinician-administered Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule–IV (ADIS-IV). Anxiety symptoms were assessed using the self-report Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and the clinician-administered GAD section from the ADIS-IV. Results indicated that psychological distress was prevalent in the sample, with 27% receiving a PTSD diagnosis, 40% diagnosed with a depressive disorder, and 55% meeting criteria for GAD. Although each self-report measure was significantly and positively correlated with its corresponding clinician-administered measure, rates of diagnostic concordance were mixed. The BDI-II showed a high degree of agreement with the ADIS-IV depression section, but the IES-R and the CAPS were discordant at classifying PTSD. The BAI had acceptable sensitivity but poor specificity in relation to the ADIS-IV GAD section. These findings suggest that multiple assessment modalities should be considered when rating symptoms and estimating the prevalence of diagnoses among survivors of IPV.



Author(s):  
E. L. Duinhof ◽  
K. M. Lek ◽  
M. E. de Looze ◽  
A. Cosma ◽  
J. Mazur ◽  
...  

Abstract Aims The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) has been used in many epidemiological studies to assess adolescent mental health problems, but cross-country comparisons of the self-report SDQ are scarce and so far failed to find a good-fitting, common, invariant measurement model across countries. The present study aims to evaluate and establish a version of the self-report SDQ that allows for a valid cross-country comparison of adolescent self-reported mental health problems. Methods Using the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study, the measurement model and measurement invariance of the 20 items of the self-report SDQ measuring adolescent mental health problems were evaluated. Nationally representative samples of 11-, 13- and 15-year old adolescents (n = 33 233) from seven countries of different regions in Europe (Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia) were used. Results In order to establish a good-fitting and common measurement model, the five reverse worded items of the self-report SDQ had to be removed. Using this revised version of the self-report SDQ, the SDQ-R, partial measurement invariance was established, indicating that latent factor means assessing conduct problems, emotional symptoms, peer relationships problems and hyperactivity-inattention problems could be validly compared across the countries in this study. Results showed that adolescents in Greece scored relatively low on almost all problem subscales, whereas adolescents in Poland scored relatively high on almost all problem subscales. Adolescents in the Netherlands reported the most divergent profile of mental health problems with the lowest levels of conduct problems, low levels of emotional symptoms and peer relationship problems, but the highest levels of hyperactivity-inattention problems. Conclusions With six factor loadings being non-invariant, partial measurement invariance was established, indicating that the 15-item SDQ-R could be used in our cross-country comparison of adolescent mental health problems. To move the field of internationally comparative research on adolescent mental health forward, studies should test the applicability of the SDQ-R in other countries in- and outside Europe, continue to develop the SDQ-R as a cross-country invariant measure of adolescent mental health, and examine explanations for the found country differences in adolescent mental health problems.



2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 323-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Rosenfield ◽  
Mary Clare Lennon ◽  
Helene Raskin White

How do schemas about self-salience—the importance of the self versus the collective in social relations—affect mental health? We propose that self-salience shapes the likelihood of experiencing internalizing or externalizing problems. Schemas that privilege others over the self increase the risk of internalizing symptoms, including depressive symptoms and anxiety, whereas those that privilege the self over others predispose individuals to externalizing behaviors of antisocial behavior and substance abuse. Furthermore, we propose that these schemas contribute to the gender differences that exist in these problems. We test these predictions with data from adolescents, the stage at which these problems and the gender differences in them arise. Results show that self-salience underlies both internalizing and externalizing problems. In addition, schemas about self-salience help explain the gender differences found in mental health problems.



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