Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a sudden economic crisis that led to increases in hardship and poverty. Motivated by the concern that people living in long-term poverty have few reserves to draw upon in times of crisis and may experience severe consequences, this study focuses on the association between material hardship and emotional wellbeing among people in poverty. The data were collected in two waves of telephone surveys during the pandemic (n = 88). Participants for the study were recruited through social service departments in six cities in Northern Israel. The findings show that COVID-19 increased material hardship, and that material hardship has detrimental effects on the four measures of emotional wellbeing selected (stress, anxiety, depression, and physical symptoms). Informal social support has positive effects on emotional wellbeing but it does not counter the negative effects of material hardship. Policy implications are discussed.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-21 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | Social Indicators Research |
Volume | 165 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 20 Oct 2022 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study was funded by Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST # 3-16924).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
Keywords
- Anxiety
- Covid-19
- Depression
- Emotional wellbeing
- Material hardship
- Poverty
- Social support
- Stress
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Sociology and Political Science
- Social Sciences (all)