Financial Factors and Psychological Distress during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many factors have simultaneously affected people’s psychological distress (PD). The most commonly studied types of factors have been those relating to health risks involving SARS-CoV-2 infection and sociodemographic factors. However, financial changes at both the national and global levels and these changes’ influences on people’s personal finances constitute another group of factors with the potential to cause symptoms of anxiety and depression. A correlation study of 1135 working adults in Poland was conducted to analyze the roles of a wide range of financial variables in explaining the extent of people’s PD during the pandemic. Three groups of financial factors predicted PD over and above sociodemographic variables and COVID-19 health-related factors: a person’s objective financial situation, their subjective financial situation, and their individual financial disposition, the last of these being the most important. The present study adds to the current state of knowledge by showing that financial variables explain a significant portion of variance in PD over and above sociodemographic and COVID-19 health-related factors. Moreover, the study also identified individual financial variables that were capable of predicting people’s psychological distress during the pandemic.

Changes in work/sleep patterns due to the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with psychological distress among Japanese workers

“…Additionally, in our sub-analysis, we found a higher risk of psychological distress (OR = 5.88, 95% CI = 4.29–8.06) among those with decreased work hours and decreased sleep duration coupled with financial difficulties compared to unchanged work hours and unchanged sleep duration coupled with no financial difficulties ( Supplementary Table S1 ). Previous studies have also supported our hypothesis; people experiencing financial difficulties had higher rates of psychological distress during the COVID-19 crisis ( Griffiths et al, 2021 ; Nagasu et al, 2021 ; OECD, 2021 ; Ettman et al, 2022 ; Sekścińska et al, 2022 ).…”

Ostracism in the era of COVID-19: Intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intergroup perspectives

“…Moreover, living alone during the quarantine along with changes in the monthly financial income because of job loss strongly predicted negative and unpleasant emotions and reduced positive emotions such as joy (Sekścińska et al, 2022). Such findings provide further support to the view, already put forward by emotional appraisal theories (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), that what matters more in crisis situations, as a significant predictor of emotions, is the appraisal of the situation rather than the situation per se.…”

Depression, Anxiety and Quality of Life among Online Responders in Poland: A Cross-Sectional Study Covering Four Waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Additionally, they were poorly respected compared to the previous waves, including fewer people wearing masks in public places or complying with occupancy limits [ 25 ]. The worsening of economic situation, especially the rise in inflation (prices of goods in Poland increased by 7.8% compared to November 2021, the month one year prior to the peak of fourth wave), which has been confirmed by previous studies, and which also results from the ongoing epidemiological situation, may also aggravate anxiety [ 26 , 27 ]. Another negative factor is that a significant part of society are not aware of effective techniques for coping with stress [ 28 ].…”