Publications

This study examines the prevalence of overlapping pandemic- and climate-related worry and its association with mental health outcomes in a nationally representative sample in Canada. We also present data on the ways in which this worry is disproportionately impacting certain population groups.

Parents with children living at home were early on identified as a population at heightened mental health risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, with concerns about the potential long-term impacts of the pandemic on parents’ mental health, family functioning, and children’s well-being. This study investigates impacts of the pandemic on parents’ psychological distress, contextual sources of distress, and associations with family functioning nearly two years into the pandemic.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly one in five adults in Canada worried about having enough food to meet their household's needs. This study builds upon data collected in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, confirming that persistently high proportions of adults living in Canada experienced stress or worry about having enough food to meet their household’s basic needs in 2020–2021.

This paper characterizes levels of mental distress among adults living in Canada amid the COVID-19 pandemic and examines the extent of virtual mental health resource use, including reasons for non-use, among adults with moderate to severe distress.

To mitigate the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on financial resources, governments and family/friends mobilized financial support interventions (e.g., emergency aid funds) and assistance. This study aimed to investigate the moderating effect of financial support from the government or from family/friends on the association between income loss and depression among young adults.

The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to increases in negative emotions such as fear, worry, and loneliness, as well as changes in positive emotions, including calmness and hopefulness. This study examines how patterns of co-occurring positive and negative emotions relate to structural vulnerability and mental health amid the pandemic.

Adverse mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are well documented; however, there remains limited data detailing trends in mental health at different points in time and across population sub-groups most impacted. This paper draws on data from three rounds of a nationally representative cross-sectional monitoring survey to characterize the mental health impacts of COVID-19 on adults living in Canada (N = 9,061).

While young adults experienced mental health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about how their mental health needs were subsequently met through access to mental health services (MHS). From October to December 2020, we conducted an online survey of young adults (18–29 years) living in Canada and France to investigate factors associated with unmet MHS needs.

With significant levels of mental distress reported by populations, globally, the magnitude of suicidal ideation during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic is a central concern. The goal of this study was to quantify the extent of pandemic-related suicidal ideation in the Canadian population during the first ten months of the pandemic and identify sociodemographic and pandemic-related stressors associated with increased risk of ideation.

We examined the mental health impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic among parents with children <18 years old living at home over three study rounds in May 2020 (n = 618), September 2020 (n = 804), and January 2021 (n = 602). Data were collected using a cross-sectional online survey of adults living in Canada, nationally representative by age, gender, household income, and region.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having considerable impacts on population-level mental health, with research illustrating an increased prevalence in suicidal thoughts due to pandemic stressors. The objective of this study was to examine how Reddit users within the r/COVID19_support community describe their experiences of suicidal thoughts amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Little is known about the association between mental health and diminished food worry during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines worry about having enough food to meet household needs and its association with mental health during the early months of the pandemic in Canada.

In the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, social isolation, school/child care closures and employment instability have created unprecedented conditions for families raising children at home. This study describes the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on families with children in Canada.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many jurisdictions, including Canada, have made use of public health measures such as COVID-19 quarantine to reduce the transmission of the virus. To examine associations between these periods of quarantine and mental health, including suicidal ideation and deliberate self-harm, we examined data from a national survey of 3000 Canadian adults distributed between May 14-29, 2020.

Evidence on the population-level mental health impacts of COVID-19 are beginning to amass; however, to date, there are significant gaps in our understandings of whose mental health is most impacted, how the pandemic is contributing to widening mental health inequities, and the coping strategies being used to sustain mental health. This monitoring study highlights the differential mental health impacts of the pandemic for those who experience health, social, and structural inequities.

The aim of this paper is to examine the use of asynchronous virtual mental health resources in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic among the general population and among a participant subgroup classified as experiencing an adverse mental health impact related to the pandemic.