Socioeconomic status and mental health during the COVID-19 crisis: Are sense of coherence, sense of community coherence and sense of national coherence predictors for mental health?

Roald Pijpker; Dani van der Kamp; Sarah Vader; Lea den Broeder; Annemarie Wagemakers

doi:10.5114/hpr.2022.114527

Socioeconomic status and mental health during the COVID-19 crisis: Are sense of coherence, sense of community coherence and sense of national coherence predictors for mental health?

Health Psychol Rep. 2022 Mar 21;10(2):149-155. doi: 10.5114/hpr.2022.114527. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Roald Pijpker¹, Dani van der Kamp¹, Sarah Vader², Lea den Broeder^{2

3}, Annemarie Wagemakers¹

Affiliations

¹ Health and Society, Social Sciences Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
² Centre for Nutrition, Prevention and Health Services, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands.
³ Faculty of Health, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Abstract

Background: Evidence about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on existing health inequalities is emerging. This study explored differences in mental health, sense of coherence (SOC), sense of community coherence (SOCC), sense of national coherence (SONC), and social support between low and high socioeconomic (SES) groups, and the predictive value of these predictors for mental health.

Participants and procedure: A cross-sectional study was conducted using an online survey in the Netherlands in October 2021, comprising a total of 91 respondents (n = 41, low SES; n = 50, high SES).

Results: There were no differences in mental health, SOC, SOCC, SONC, and social support between the groups. SOC was a predictor for mental health in both groups and SOCC for the low SES group.

Conclusions: We found that both SOC and SOCC predict mental health during the pandemic. In the article we reflect on possible pathways for strengthening these resources for mental health.

Keywords: COVID-19; mental health; salutogenesis; sense of coherence; socioeconomic differences.