Socioeconomic status and well-being during COVID-19: A resource-based examination.
Open accessAbstract
The authors assess levels and within-person changes in psychological well-being (i.e., depressive symptoms and life satisfaction) from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic for individuals in the United States, in general and by socioeconomic status (SES). The data is from 2 surveys of 1,143 adults from RAND Corporation's nationally representative American Life Panel, the first administered between April-June, 2019 and the second during the initial peak of the pandemic in the United States in April, 2020. Depressive symptoms during the pandemic were higher than population norms before the pandemic. Depressive symptoms increased from before to during COVID-19 and life satisfaction decreased. Individuals with higher education experienced a greater increase in depressive symptoms and a greater decrease in life satisfaction from before to during COVID-19 in comparison to those with lower education. Supplemental analysis illustrates that income had a curvilinear relationship with changes in well-being, such that individuals at the highest levels of income experienced a greater decrease in life satisfaction from before to during COVID-19 than individuals with lower levels of income. We draw on conservation of resources theory and the theory of fundamental social causes to examine four key mechanisms (perceived financial resources, perceived control, interpersonal resources, and COVID-19-related knowledge/news consumption) underlying the relationship between SES and well-being during COVID-19. These resources explained changes in well-being for the sample as a whole but did not provide insight into why individuals of higher education experienced a greater decline in well-being from before to during COVID-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
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Female gender is associated with a more significant psychological impact, reflecting higher levels of anxiety, stress, and depression, and PTSD during the early pandemic.
“National and international studies in the early stages of the pandemic crisis indicated that the female gender is associated with a more significant psychological impact, reflecting higher levels of anxiety, stress, and depression (Paulino et al., 2020; Wanberg et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020; Moreira et al., 2021), and PTSD (González-Sanguino et al., 2020).”
From Dealing With the Pandemic of COVID-19 in Portugal: On the Important Role of Positivity, Experiential Avoidance, and Coping Strategies (2021) · cites this paper as Wanberg et al., 2020
The Results (H1 and H2) report increased depressive symptoms during the pandemic, and Method > Measures notes prior evidence of more depressive symptoms among women than men. Neither passage establishes that women experienced a greater psychological impact during the early pandemic or higher pandemic-related anxiety and stress. The sentence cites González-Sanguino et al., not Wanberg et al., for PTSD. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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- Authors
- Wanberg, C. R., Csillag, B., Douglass, R. P., Zhou, L., & Pollard, M. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- RAND Corporation (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Psychology
- Published
- 2020-12
- Volume
- 105
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1382-1396
- ISSN
- 0021-9010 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1854
- PMC
- PMC7899012
- OpenAlex
- W3094213434
- Cited by
- 256
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 53 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 70 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 15.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Psychology (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01AA02595)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Employment and Welfare Studies
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, socioeconomic status, psychological well-being, depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, conservation of resources theory, income, perceived control, interpersonal resources, news consumption, within-person change
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, Adult, Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Depressive Disorder, Educational Status, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Personal Satisfaction, Social Class, United States, Pandemics
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