ScholarOne - The Impact of Social Support on Anxiety and Depression
under the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review and
Meta-analysis
Abstract
COVID-19 has not only triggered a high risk of mental health problems
but brought tremendous changes in the structure of social support. To
synthesize the existing literature and examine the impact of social
support on anxiety and depression during COVID-19, scoping review and
meta-analytic approaches were adopted. Six databases were searched from
2020 to 2022. Random effects models were used and the pooled
correlations (mean r and mean ρ) were estimated. Homogeneity was
assessed using Q and I² tests. Subgroup analyses were conducted.
Meta-analysis of both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies showed
significant estimated correlations among social support, anxiety and
depression (mean ρ = -0.30, 95% CI = [-0.333, -0.255]; mean ρ =
-0.27, 95% CI = [-0.370, -0.281]). Validating these results across
ages, occupations, and regions is necessary. Moreover, only 31.67% of
studies identified social support as a single independent variable while
the remaining explored a mediating or moderating role or as one of the
multiple independent variables. Besides, the results regarding the
mediating/moderating effect of social support were inconsistent. Our
findings suggest that more studies are expected to further clarify the
role played by social support in its associations with depression and
anxiety.