Booth Id:
BEHA031
Category:
Behavioral and Social Sciences
Year:
2021
Finalist Names:
McMorris, Natalia (School: New Rochelle High School)
Abstract:
The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically changed everyday life by adding immense amounts of stress to the lives of most. Extreme levels of stress are known to lead to mental issues and, in some cases, PTSD. In this study, the goal was to find whether there will be a correlation between the current pandemic and future cases of PTSD. Even though this study did not diagnose any mental illnesses it used a collection of symptoms as guidelines for the question and achieving the goal. This study was conducted by creating a survey using symptoms of mental illness and the current Covid-19 Pandemic as factors. This data was then published using MTurk and after a month the data was collected to be analyzed. From there the data was analyzed using spearman correlation and was translated into figures for further analysis.it was found that there was a very significant and notable relationship between the amount of stress the participants experienced within a week of the survey and how often they think of pandemic while trying to focus on other things. There was a p-value of <0.01. When analyzing the data it was also found that there was a p-value of <0.01 between if the participants have felt trapped during the pandemic and how greatly the pandemic has impacted their profession. There were a total of 1223 participants, the majority of who described themselves with early onset symptoms of PTSD. The data found in this study will be further studied over time because the pandemic continues to evolve, and its impacts are unknown. With the information found though this data, future studies may be able to study the strongest predictors of PTSD, making PTSD not only easier to predict but easier to treat early on.