BACKGROUND COLOUR

The second wave takes its toll on mental health

Insights
.
ANU Poll
.
11 Aug 2021
Health + Mental Health + Pandemic
Based on the work of
Nicholas BiddleBen EdwardsMatthew GrayKate Sollis

Mental health worsened between May and August 2020 and the measure of psychological distress is still higher than in pre-COVID-19 February. It is worse for females than males, and the only age group where mental health got substantially worse in the period was for those 75 and over.

11.7

The measure of psychological distress (Kessler 6 scale) rose to 11.7 in August 2020 from 11.5 in May – a statistically significant increase.

75

The mental health of those aged 75 and over worsened substantially between May and August.

11.2

The psychological distress measure didn’t change for males from May to August

12

There was a statistically significant difference for females where the measure rose from 11.7 in May to 12 in August.

Psychological Distress by Age, February 2017 and April to August 2020
In the past four weeks how often did you feel Nervous? Hopeless? Restless or fidgety? That everything was an effort? So sad that nothing could cheer you up? Worthless?
Sources & Methodology
Variable description By month and year
Variable time span February 2017 - August 2020
Published by ANU Poll
Publisher Link https://csrm.cass.anu.edu.au/research/publications/tracking-outcomes-during-covid-19-pandemic-august-2020-divergence-within
Data Source 10.26193/ZFGFNE
© Copyright 2021, Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National University.
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Background

ANU Poll is a quarterly survey of Australian public opinion. The topic of each survey is an issue of national importance. ANUpoll differs from other opinion polls by placing public opinion in a broad policy context, and by benchmarking Australia against international opinion. lt is also able to follow trends in opinions over many decades.

ANUpoll is collected by the Social Research Centre's panel, Life in AustraliaTM. The Social Research Centre collected data online and through Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) in order to ensure representation from the offline Australian population.

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Researchers

Professor Nicholas Biddle is Associate Director of the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods and Director of the newly created Policy Experiments Lab (http://csrm.cass.anu.edu.au/pelab). He has a Bachelor of Economics (Hons.) from the University of Sydney and a Master of Education from Monash University. He also has a PhD in Public Policy from the ANU where he wrote his thesis on the benefits of and participation in education of Indigenous Australians. He previously held a Senior Research Officer and Assistant Director position in the Methodology Division of the Australian Bureau of Statistics and is currently a Fellow of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute.

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Associate Professor Ben Edwards is a Senior Fellow at the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods. An expert in longitudinal and life course studies and quantitative social scientist, Ben focuses on public policy research in the area of child and adolescent development, informal carers, intergenerational impacts of trauma (e.g. veterans, refugees) and natural disasters (e.g. drought, bushfires, cumulative disasters). He is a member of scientific advisory groups for the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth, Generation Victoria and a longitudinal cohort study in the Philippines. Ben has advised the OECD, United Nations and Australian Federal and State Government departments in designing longitudinal studies and evaluations, child welfare, non-cognitive skills, and crime prevention.

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Professor Matthew Gray is Director of the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods. Previous positions include Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Director of Research for the College of Arts and Social Sciences and Deputy Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies (2005–2010). He has published research on a wide range of social and economic policy issues including those related to Indigenous Australians. He has particular expertise in work and family issues, labour economics, social capital and social inclusion, measuring wellbeing, the economic consequences of divorce, child support, and social and economic policy development. He has undertaken extensive work on economic policy issues involving Indigenous Australians, including health status, labour market outcomes, poverty and the CDEP scheme.

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Kate Sollis is a Research Officer and PhD Candidate at the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods. Her background is in statistics and social policy, with a particular interest in the measurement of wellbeing. She has previously worked as a Research Officer at ARACY (The Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

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Citation

Biddle, N., Edwards, B., Gray, M. & Sollis, K., ANU Poll August 2020, Tracking wellbeing outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic February to August 2020 [Computer file]. Canberra: Australian Data Archive, The Australian National University, 2020.

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