Ontario Adults' Mental Health, Wellbeing, and Prosocial Behaviour During the First 16 Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study
type: CreativeWork
description: The overall purpose of this dissertation was to provide a detailed assessment of the mental health, wellbeing, and prosocial behaviour of Ontario adults aged 30–59 (those at highest risk for losing years of healthy life due to chronic disease) during the first 16 months of the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2020–August 2021). To address this dissertation’s purpose specifically, four distinct yet thematically connected articles were written. Article 1 provides the starting point of this program of research via an overview of Ontario adults’ inter-related health behaviours (i.e., physical activity, sedentary behaviours, and dietary intake) and outcomes including, mental health, and wellbeing during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic (April–July 2020) along with differences between physical activity status and wellbeing, mental health, and dietary intake. Article 2 presents a cross-sectional overview of the same adults’ prosocialness—inclusive of kindness—during the identical timeframe as Article 1 and, given the disparate risks associated with living locales at the time, also explored whether prosocial behaviour differed among those living in urban versus rural settings. To assess the longer term patterns of mental health, wellbeing, and prosocial behaviour as the pandemic continued, the specific purposes of Articles 3 and 4 were to quantitatively assess participants’ mental health and wellbeing (Article 3) and their prosocial behaviour (inclusive of kindness), while also qualitatively exploring their lived experiences of prosocial behaviour (Article 4) over the first 16 months of the pandemic. The findings from Article 1 indicated that during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, in general, individuals’ (n = 2,156) mental health and wellbeing were poor. The average score for participants’ mental health was concerning and indicative of experiencing some mental health problems during this timeframe. With respect to wellbeing, participants’ scores were be…
abstract: The overall purpose of this dissertation was to provide a detailed assessment of the mental health, wellbeing, and prosocial behaviour of Ontario adults aged 30–59 (those at highest risk for losing years of healthy life due to chronic disease) during the first 16 months of the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2020–August 2021). To address this dissertation’s purpose specifically, four distinct yet thematically connected articles were written. Article 1 provides the starting point of this program of research via an overview of Ontario adults’ inter-related health behaviours (i.e., physical activity, sedentary behaviours, and dietary intake) and outcomes including, mental health, and wellbeing during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic (April–July 2020) along with differences between physical activity status and wellbeing, mental health, and dietary intake. Article 2 presents a cross-sectional overview of the same adults’ prosocialness—inclusive of kindness—during the identical timeframe as Article 1 and, given the disparate risks associated with living locales at the time, also explored whether prosocial behaviour differed among those living in urban versus rural settings. To assess the longer term patterns of mental health, wellbeing, and prosocial behaviour as the pandemic continued, the specific purposes of Articles 3 and 4 were to quantitatively assess participants’ mental health and wellbeing (Article 3) and their prosocial behaviour (inclusive of kindness), while also qualitatively exploring their lived experiences of prosocial behaviour (Article 4) over the first 16 months of the pandemic. The findings from Article 1 indicated that during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, in general, individuals’ (n = 2,156) mental health and wellbeing were poor. The average score for participants’ mental health was concerning and indicative of experiencing some mental health problems during this timeframe. With respect to wellbeing, participants’ scores were be…
author: Shillington, Katie J.
language: en_ca
keywords: prosocial behaviour, kindness, mental health, wellbeing, adults, COVID-19
date published: 2023-07-12
date modified: 2026-07-27T21:56:07Z
provider: Western University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Western Ontario

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/36272