Facing new fears during the COVID-19 pandemic: The State of America's mental health
Open accessAbstract
Objective COVID-19 is rearranging our society with fear and worry about the novel coronavirus impacting the mental health of Americans. The current study examines the intersection of COVID-19 fear, worries and perceived threat with social vulnerabilities and mental health consequences, namely anxiety and depressive symptomatology.Methods Using an online platform, a national sample (n = 10, 368) of U.S. adults was surveyed during the week of March 23, 2020. The sample was post-strata weighted to ensure adequate representation of the U.S. population based on population estimates for gender, race/ethnicity, income, age, and geography.Results Fear and worry are not distributed equally across the country; rather they are concentrated in places where the largest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is found. Additionally, data highlight significant differences in the subjective perception of distress across groups with varying social vulnerabilities. Women, Hispanics, Asians, families with children under 18, and foreign-born respondents reported higher levels of subjective fear and worry compared to their counterparts. Finally, even after controlling for social vulnerability, subjective assessments of distress were positive, and significantly related to anxiety and depressive symptomatology; prior mental health research from China and Europe confirm what others have begun to document in the United States.Conclusions This preliminary work provides practitioners with a glimpse of what lies ahead, which individuals and communities may be the most vulnerable, and what types of strategic interventions might help to address a wide range of mental health consequences for Americans in the months and years ahead.
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COVID-19 is increasing exponentially in many regions, with documented negative mental health impacts in the United States, India, and Europe.
“COVID-19 is increasing exponentially in many regions, with documented negative mental health impacts in the United States (e.g., Fitzpatrick et al., 2020), India (e.g., Verma & Mishra, 2020) and Europe (e.g., Gonzalez-Sanguino et al., 2020).”
From Unguided low intensity cognitive behaviour therapy for anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic: A randomised trial (2021) · cites this paper as Fitzpatrick et al., 2020
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Background
- Authors
- Fitzpatrick, K. M., Drawve, G., & Harris, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (US)
- Corresponding author
- Fitzpatrick, Kevin M.
- Venue
- Journal of Anxiety Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-10
- Volume
- 75
- Pages
- 102291
- ISSN
- 0887-6185 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7425672
- OpenAlex
- W3048387866
- Cited by
- 188
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 50 · 2021: 61 · 2020: 5 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 15.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Anxiety Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, fear and worry, threat perception, social vulnerability, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, mental health, racial and ethnic disparities, gender differences, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, foreign-born population, families with children, United States
- MeSH terms
- Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adult, Anxiety, Child, Depression, Ethnicity, Fear, Female, Health Surveys, Hispanic or Latino, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Pneumonia, Viral, Socioeconomic Factors, United States, Women, Coronavirus Infections, Asian People, Young Adult, Pandemics
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