Associations between mental health and job loss among middle- and low-income veterans and civilians during the COVID-19 pandemic: An exploratory study.

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between job loss and mental health during the pandemic among a nationally representative sample of middle‐ and low‐income military veterans and civilians. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk in May–June 2020. Our sample was comparable to the U.S. population with respect to key demographics (i.e., sex, race, ethnicity, and geographic region). More veterans were male (36.9% civilians vs. 74.1% veterans), and on average they were older than civilians (M civilians = 47.86 vs. M veterans = 52.64). After controlling for sociodemographic factors, probable anxiety (adjusted odds ratio for veterans = 1.96, 95% [1.22–3.15]) was significantly associated with job loss among veterans, whereas among civilians, probable anxiety (adjusted odds ratio for civilians [AORc] = 1.48, 95% [1.21–1.81]), probable COVID‐19 era‐related stress (AORc = 1.73, 95% [1.45–2.07]), and loneliness (AORc = 1.09, 95% [1.04–1.13]) were associated with job loss. Results demonstrated that veteran sample's effect sizes were larger than civilian sample's effect sizes; however, our moderation analyses results revealed that veteran status did not moderate the relationships between mental health and job loss. The findings in this study support a relationship between job loss and poorer mental health, suggesting that increased mental health services may be important to address ongoing effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic.