Do government responses impact the relationship between age, gender and psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic? A comparison across 27 European countries

RATIONALE: Governments around the world have developed a range of responses to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, including containment and closure, health system and economic policies. Despite their ubiquity, little is known regarding how government policies interact with age and gender to predict individual-level psychological outcomes. OBJECTIVE: This study examines how three types of national-level government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic moderate the relationship between age and psychological distress as well as gender and psychological distress. METHOD: We use a multilevel model to assess how government policies moderate the relationship between age as well as gender and psychological distress. Individual-level data are based on the SHARE COVID-19 Survey (n = 51,467 from 27 countries). Government policies are assessed using data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker. RESULTS: Results show that containment and closure policies increase psychological distress more for women compared to men. Health system policies increase psychological distress more for women compared to men and more for older individuals compared to younger individuals. Economic policies do not interact with age or gender to predict psychological distress. CONCLUSIONS: While containment and closure policies and health system policies interact with age and gender to predict psychological distress, their overall effect is comparably modest.