Women's Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mixed-Methods Sequential Explanatory Analysis of the Role of Sex, Gender, and Parenthood in the Experiences of Depression and Anxiety

Research Questions We examined the mental health experiences of women and gender-diverse people during the pandemic by answering three research questions. Q1. How did the levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms change during the pandemic by sex and gender? Q2. What individual and intersectional factors were related to experiencing the greatest levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms following the start of the pandemic? Q3. Why did some individuals experience more negative mental health outcomes? Methods This was a two-part mixed methods study. The first part was a quantitative study using an online survey; the second part was a qualitative explanatory study. The survey consisted of demographic, homelife, and mental health questions. We asked participants to complete the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 (GAD-2) scales, and to describe how they were feeling during the pandemic. Results A total of 1847 participants (43 countries) completed the study and revealed that depressive and anxiety symptoms increased by 74.2% and 57.1%, respectively. Q1. Women and gender nonconforming people had significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety than men. In man, woman, and other genders, for PHQ-9 (maximum: 27) and GAD-2 (maximum: 6) scores, respectively, there was an increase of 3.3, 4.8, and 6.5 in scores. of 0.9, 1.3, and 1.6. Q2. We examined various aspects of participants’ lives and found that an interaction between gender (non-man) and having a child(ren) were variables of significance (p < 0.05) in predicting post-pandemic PHQ-9 and GAD-2 scores. Q3. Using the groups revealed in Q2, we developed seven themes and a theory that adjusting to changes caused by the pandemic (such as caring for children at home) combined with a loss of control culminated in worse mental health outcomes for mothers and gender nonconforming parents. Conclusion and Significance Depressive and anxiety symptoms increased after the start of the pandemic among women and gender-diverse people more than men. This increase was related to parenthood where mothers and gender nonconforming parents had negative mental health outcomes. Finding that women and gender-diverse individuals were most at-risk highlights the need for clinicians, psychiatrists, and policy makers to adopt gender-sensitive screening, treatment, and policy.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph D

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Western Ontario

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Seens, Hoda

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• MacDermid, Joy C.

• mental health
• women’s health
• depression and anxiety
• pandemic
• sex and gender
• mothers and parents

Language dc:language.iso

en_ca

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/35341

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/35341