Investigating the Relationship Between Social Policy, Financial Difficulty and Mental Health of Young Adults in the UK During the COVID-19 Pandemic: E

在冠状病毒(新冠肺炎)大流行期间，经济和就业的不确定性对联合王国年轻人的生活产生了重大影响。经济困难、社会孤立和就业机会恶化加剧了年轻人本已糟糕的心理健康状况。这个项目将调查新冠肺炎大流行期间社会政策、经济困难和年轻人心理健康之间的关系。它将主要使用理解社会数据集，该数据集涉及在整个新冠肺炎大流行期间获得的调查数据。该项目的目的将是研究经济困难对年轻人心理健康的影响程度，以及在新冠肺炎大流行期间支持人们的金融或就业政策(普遍信贷计划、冠状病毒工作保留计划、自营职业收入支持计划)的影响。其结果将是创建一个财务指数，用于衡量财务困难及其对生活条件标准的不利影响。通过这项测量，我们将能够检查经济困难对整个英国精神健康的不利影响，以及个人特征或地理位置的差异有多大。此外，还将探讨英国权力下放母国之间的政策差异。统计方法将被用来确定经济困难和心理健康之间的关系，以预测社会政策对心理健康的影响。根据这一数据作出的预测将用于为未来的社会政策提供信息，并评估在大流行期间实施的政策的有效性。社会政策必须为人口中受影响最严重的个人提供有效的支持；因此，政策制定者必须了解财政困难、社会政策和最终精神健康之间的关系。有效的社会政策可以改善公众健康和整体精神健康。基于这项研究的建议将在研讨会和演讲期间向政策制定者和利益攸关方提出，以使人们能够了解英国(及其权力下放)政府如何改进现有的社会政策，以改善经济困难个人的心理健康。

Economic and employment uncertainty has made a substantial impact on the lives of young adults in the United Kingdom over the course of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic. Financial difficulty, social isolation and worsening employment opportunities have exacerbated already poor mental health among young adults. This project will investigate the relationship between social policy, financial difficulty, and the mental wellbeing of young adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Primarily it will use the Understanding Society dataset, which involves survey data obtained throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic. The aim of this project will be to examine the extent to which financial difficulty has had an impact on young adult's mental wellbeing, and the impact of financial or employment policies that supported people during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Universal Credit Scheme, Coronavirus Job retention scheme, Self-employment income support scheme). The result will be a creating a financial index, used to measure financial difficulty and the adverse impact it has on standard of living conditions. Through this measure, we will be able to examine the adverse impacts of financial difficulty on mental wellbeing across the UK, and how much it varies by personal characteristics or geographical location. Differences in policy within UK devolved home nations will also be explored. Statistical methods will be used to identify the relationship between financial difficulty and mental health to predict the impact of social policy on mental health. The predictions made from this data will be used to inform future social policy and evaluate the effectiveness of policies in place during the pandemic. Social policies must provide effective support to the most adversely affected individuals within a population; therefore, policymakers must understand the relationship between financial difficulty, social policy, and ultimately mental health. Effective social policy can serve to improve public health and overall mental wellbeing. Recommendations based on this research will be made to policymakers and stakeholders during workshops and presentations to enable an understanding of how British (and its devolved) governments may improve existing social policies to improve the mental health of individuals undergoing financial difficulty.