{"doi":"10.4236/psych.2022.133029","title":"Predictors of Mental Health among the General Population of U.S. Adults Eight Months into the COVID-19 Pandemic","abstract":"Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound impacts on mental health. We examined whether mental health differed based on sociodemographic and background characteristics, political party affiliation, and concerns about COVID-19. Methods: A cross-sectional, national sample of 1095 U.S. adults were surveyed October 22-26, 2020. The survey collected information on demographics, risk and protective behaviors for COVID-19, and mental health using the Mental Health Inventory-5 (MHI-5) scale. Independent samples t-tests, one-way Analysis of Variance tests, and a multivariable linear regression model were conducted. Results: Regression results showed respondents with criminal justice (B = -6.56, 95% CI = -10.05, -3.06) or opioid misuse (B = -9.98, 95% CI = -14.74, -5.23) histories reported poorer mental health than those without. Those who took protective behaviors (e.g., wearing masks) reported poorer mental health compared to those who indicated protective behaviors were unnecessary (B = 7.00, 95% CI = 1.61, 12.38) while those who took at least one risk behavior (e.g., eating in a restaurant) reported better mental health than those who did not. Conclusions: Our study shows that certain groups have experienced poorer mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that mental health should continue to be monitored so that public health interventions and messaging help prevent the spread of COVID-19 without increasing poor mental health outcomes.","journal":"Psychology","year":2022,"id":279596,"datarank":0.3602164678431811,"base_score":1.6094379124341003,"endowment":1.6094379124341003,"self_citation_contribution":0.24141568686511508,"citation_network_contribution":0.11880078097806605,"self_endowment_contribution":0.24141568686511508,"citer_contribution":0.11880078097806605,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":3,"citers_with_citation_signal":3,"citers_with_endowment":3,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9471,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":322539,"name":"Bruce G. Taylor","orcid":"0000-0002-8115-1438","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":953164,"name":"Phoebe A. Lamuda","orcid":"0000-0003-0302-4465","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":953679,"name":"Kai MacLean","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":383132,"name":"Harold A. Pollack","orcid":"0000-0003-1629-1175","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":271026,"name":"John A. Schneider","orcid":"0000-0002-7870-5639","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":662415,"name":"Elizabeth Flanagan","orcid":"0000-0002-6326-2628","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":38,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:28:55.546964Z","pmid":"35872973","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}