COVID-19, economic impact, mental health and coping behaviors: A conceptual framework and future research directions

Lu, X.; Lin, Z.

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.759974

COVID-19, economic impact, mental health and coping behaviors: A conceptual framework and future research directions

Lu, X.; Lin, Z.

Authors

X. Lu

Professor Zhibin Lin zhibin.lin@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

The covid-19 pandemic has caused serious economic and social consequences. Recent research shows that the pandemic has not only caused a physical health crisis, but also caused many psychological and mental crises. Based on the contemporary cognitive-behavioral models, this article offers a conceptual analysis of how the pandemic affects individual mental health and coping behaviors from the perspective of individual economic status, individual context, and social context. The analysis shows that: 1) The pandemic has led to increased economic uncertainty, increased unemployment and underemployment pressure, increased income uncertainty, and different degrees of employment pressure and economic difficulties; 2) These difficulties have stimulated different levels of mental health problems, ranging from perceived insecurity (environmental, food safety, etc.), worry, fear, to stress, anxiety, depression, etc. The mental health deterioration varies across different groups, with the symptoms of psychological distress are more obvious among disadvantageous groups; 3) Mental health problems have caused behavior changes, and various stress behaviors such as protective behaviors and resistive behaviors. Future research directions are suggested.

Citation

Lu, X., & Lin, Z. (2021). COVID-19, economic impact, mental health and coping behaviors: A conceptual framework and future research directions. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 759974. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.759974

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Oct 22, 2021
Online Publication Date	Nov 11, 2021
Publication Date	2021
Deposit Date	Nov 19, 2021
Publicly Available Date	Dec 6, 2021
Journal	Frontiers in Psychology
Print ISSN	1664-1078
Electronic ISSN	1664-1078
Publisher	Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	12
Article Number	759974
DOI	https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.759974
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1221258

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Copyright Statement
© 2021 Lu and Lin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.