A study conducted in early 2020 unsurprisingly showed that the Covid-19 outbreak caused increased fear and worries, focusing mainly on health anxiety (Asmundson & Taylor, 2020a). For example, 24.9% of Chinese college students experienced some level of anxiety due to the coronavirus (Cao, Fang, Hou, Han, Xu, Dong, & Zheng, 2020), and considerable stress, anxiety, and depression have been reported among the general population in China (Qiu, Shen, Zhao, Wang, Xie, & Xu, 2020). Similar findings have been reported in other locations, including the UK (Harper, Satchell, Fido, & Latzman, 2020), Singapore (Tan, Chew, Lee, Jing, Goh, Yeo, … & Shanmugam, 2020), and Russia (Sorokin, Kasyanov, Rukavishnikov, Makarevich, Neznanov, Lutova, & Mazo, 2020).
Kazmi, Hasan, Talib, and Saxena, (2020) surveyed 1,000 respondents in India, and found that individuals are going through a crisis and have lost a sense of control of their lives due to Covid-19 lockdown and related restrictions. Young adolescents and adults face uncertainty with respect to their careers, professional lives, and earning capacity. Fear of infection created panic. Increased levels of anxiety, stress, and depression were found especially in the age range of 15 to 35, although previous studies have shown that anxiety, stress, and depression are typically more prevalent in the older age group (40-49 years). The results of this survey are also consistent with the findings of the 2016 National Mental Health Survey of India, which suggested that anxiety is higher in females whereas males are more depressed and stressed compared to females. There is also a significant difference in stress levels of employed and unemployed individuals, although both groups report similar levels of anxiety.
In Israel, Zolotov, Reznik, Bender, and Isralowitz, (2020) surveyed 370 Israeli students and found that fear was associated with other measures of well-being. Bitan, Grossman-Giron, Bloch, Mayer, Shiffman, and Mendlovic (2020), who validated the Hebrew version of The Fear of Covid-19 Scale (FCV-19S), conducted a survey of 639 participants and found that Covid-19-related fears were also connected to stress, anxiety, and depression. In their extensive online study, Barzilay, Moore, Greenberg, DiDomenico, Brown, White, … and Gur (2020) compared Israeli and US samples (1,197 and 1,607 participants, respectively). Their findings show that, in general, the US participants were more worried or stressed about Covid-19. US participants were specifically more concerned about themselves (contracting Covd-19, dying from Covid-19, and currently having Covid-19) compared to Israel participants, who showed no difference between the level of worries about themselves and worries about others (family members contracting Covid-19/infecting others) or concerns about financial hardship caused by Covid-19.
Israel participants scored higher overall on resilience, while US participants were more likely to meet screening criteria for anxiety and depression. All the differences were statistically significant (p < .001). It is important to note that these somewhat surprising findings are based on data collected in the first quarter of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic in Israel appeared to be under control. Unfortunately, since mid-year, Israel has become one of the most dangerous countries, a fact that might affect future comparisons. The daily press in Israel reported an increase in the number of suicidal calls to Eran, a mental health hotline (Yaron, 2020). According to this source, the number of suicidal calls to Eran peaked in October 2020, during Israel’s second lockdown. The deepening economic crisis was cited much more frequently as the backdrop to callers’ personal distress than any other aspect of the crisis, including the fear of infection itself.
