A Longitudinal Study on Changes in Mental Health of the Poor during COVID-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this study was to longitudinally identify changes in the mental health of the poor due to COVID-19 through comparison with the non-poor.For this purpose, data from the Korean Welfare Panel for 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 were used.As of 2019, the income class was divided into livelihood benefits according to the National Basic Livelihood Security Act, and data from 6,341 adults aged 20 or older were used for analysis.SPSS 24.version was used to apply reliability analysis, t-test, and repeated measurement ANOVA using a General Linear Model (GLM).The main research results are as follows.First, as COVID-19 progresses, depression increases every year, and self-esteem decreases every year.Second, the mental health of the poor was more negative than that of the non-poor throughout the COVID-19 period.In other words, throughout the COVID-19 period, the poor had higher levels of depression, lower self-esteem, more severe alcoholism, and higher suicidal thoughts than the non-poor.Third, the interaction between the COVID-19 period (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022) and income class (poor class and non-poor class) had a significant effect on depression and self-esteem.Overall, as COVID-19 progressed, the non-poor group tended to have a gradual increase in depression and a gradual decline in self-esteem.However, in the case of the poor, the sharp decline in mental health was severe as COVID-19 progressed, especially showing a sharp slope pattern between 2020 and 2021.