Date of Completion

Spring 5-26-2021

Thesis Advisor(s)

Natalie J. Shook; James Chrobak

Honors Major

Psychology

Disciplines

Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Mental and Social Health | Neuroscience and Neurobiology | Nursing | Psychiatry and Psychology | Public Health | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

The impact of COVID-19 is placing a large strain on women. This can be seen through reports of mental health and financial concerns. Women are more vulnerable to COVID-19 related economic effects due to existing gender inequalities, which in turn may also have a negative effect on mental health. Through this study gender disproportion is looked at between mental health and COVID-19 financial concerns among women and men. The aim is to asses how COVID-19 financial concerns may be contributing to stress, anxiety, and depression. It is hypothesized that; women will report worse mental health and greater economic concerns than men, and that worse mental health is tied to greater economic concerns. A study consisting of 343 United States participants, recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is used to test this hypothesis. The results show that women reported more financial concerns related to COVID-19 and worse mental health than men. COVID-19 related financial concerns were also found to be attributed to worse mental health among both men and women, but were greater among women. Research that analyzes how this pandemic disproportionality impacts gender is critical. With this type of evidence, pandemic response and recovery plans can be more effective. Such plans should include gender focused economic and social policies that hold women’s mental health and well-being as a priority.

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