Abstract
BACKGROUND: About 83,000 COVID-19 patients were confirmed in China up to May 2020. Amid the well-documented threats to physical health, the effects of this public health crisis - and the varied efforts to contain its spread - have altered individuals' "normal" daily functioning. These impacts on social, psychological, and emotional well-being remain relatively unexplored - in particular, the ways in which Chinese men and women experience and respond to potential behavioral stressors. Our study investigated sex differences in psychological stress, emotional reactions, and behavioral responses to COVID-19 and related threats among Chinese residents.
METHODS: In late February (2020), an anonymous online questionnaire was disseminated via WeChat, a popular social media platform in China. The cross-sectional study utilized a non-probabilistic "snowball" or convenience sampling of residents from various provinces and regions of China. Basic demographic characteristics (e.g., age and gender) - along with residential living arrangements and conditions - were measured along with psychological stress and emotional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
RESULTS: Three thousand eighty-eight questionnaires were returned: 1749 females (56.6%) and 1339 males (43.4%). The mean stress level,as measured by a visual analog scale, was 3.4 (SD = 2.4) - but differed significantly by sex. Besides sex, factors positively associated with stress included: age (< 45 years), employment (unsteady income, unemployed), risk of infection (exposureto COVID-19, completed medical observation), difficulties encountered (diseases, work/study, financial, mental), and related behaviors (higher desire for COVID-19 knowledge, more time concerning on the COVID-19 outbreak). "Protective" factors included frequent contact with colleagues, calmness of mood comparing with the pre-pandemic, and psychological resilience. Males and females also differed significantly in adapting to current living/working, conditions, responding to run a fever, and needing psychological support services.
CONCLUSIONS: The self-reported stress of Chinese residents related to the COVID-19 pandemic was significantly related to sex, age, employment, resilience and coping styles. Future responses to such public health threats may wish to provide sex- and/or age-appropriate supports for psychological health and emotional well-being to those at greatest risk of experiencing stress.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-7-2021
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-10085-w
Funding Information
This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81973713), State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of China Support Project (2017ZX10106001), Logistics Research Project (ALB18J002, BHJ15J003), and Chinese Medical Scientific Development Foundation of Beijing City (JJ2018–101), Project of Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (Z0652, Z0608).
Related Content
The data and material can be accessed from Kangxing Song.
Descriptions of the additional file listed at the end of this record:
Description of pandemic and living status characteristics related to COVID-19. Description of data: Table 1 showed the pandemic and living status information of the participants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Questionnaire: The Questionnaire of the Public Psychological Status during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Description of data: It provided the questionnaire used in our study.
Repository Citation
Yan, Shiyan; Xu, Rui; Stratton, Terry D.; Kavcic, Voyko; Luo, Dan; Hou, Fengsu; Bi, Fengying; Jiao, Rong; Song, Kangxing; and Jiang, Yang, "Sex Differences and Psychological Stress: Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in China" (2021). Behavioral Science Faculty Publications. 56.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/behavsci_facpub/56
Additional file 1: Appendix Table 1
Notes/Citation Information
Published in BMC Public Health, v. 21, issue 1, article no. 79.
© The Author(s). 2021
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