Social Support Promotes Mental Health During the Covid-19 Outbreak: A Cross-Sectional Study From Turkey

Mental Distress during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study of Women Receiving the Comprehensive Social Security Allowance in Hong Kong

“…Drawing on a sample of female CSSA recipients, this study assessed the mental distress of welfare recipients, who have been a largely overlooked group during the pandemic. First, the findings paint an alarming picture for Hong Kong compared with studies using the DASS-21 scale to assess mental distress during the pandemic in regions such as mainland China, Spain, Turkey, and Bangladesh (depression: 3.7–43%; anxiety: 3.9–26%; stress: 1.5–32%) [ 7 , 30 , 46 , 47 ]. In Hong Kong, a study by Tso and Park [ 39 ] on the psychological distress of the general population found that 50.4%, 28.1% and 59.6% of the participants showed moderate to extremely severe depression, anxiety and stress, respectively.…”

“…The literature has repeatedly emphasized the factor of financial difficulties in cross-national settings and diverse target group samples. Worsening finances, along with their associated causes and outcomes, such as unemployment, lower income, lower savings, and housing insecurity, led to a higher risk of mental distress [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ], highlighting the importance of providing mental health initiatives and financial interventions together. Accordingly, measures to enhance the social security system’s response to COVID became a major strategy to alleviate the pandemic’s financial difficulties and their impacts.…”

“…The existing literature, particularly the recent meta-analyses by Balakrishnan et al [ 26 ], Metin et al [ 27 ], and Bello et al [ 28 ], has proposed that various risk factors contribute to the prevalence of mental distress across distinctive groups, including sex, history of existing medical conditions, age, culture, fear of infection, employment status, social support, etc. Among these risk factors, a critical predictor to worsening mental distress during the pandemic, as shown in many studies [ 3 , 7 , 11 , 28 ], was suggested to a pre-existing mental illness. This may be a critical variable given that a large proportion of welfare recipients meet the clinical criteria for mental illness [ 29 ].…”

“…Furthermore, consistent evidence has demonstrated that females were more vulnerable than males to mental distress during the pandemic [ 6 , 7 , 10 , 30 ]. Accordingly, female CSSA recipients were identified as our key target group.…”

“…Social support has been suggested as another consistent predictor of mental health [ 6 , 7 , 14 ]. This concept refers to individuals’ perception of the coping assistance available to them from members of their social network, such as family, friends and significant others (e.g., colleagues) [ 32 ].…”