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Publication - Research and analysis

Scottish COVID-19 Mental Health Tracker Study: Wave 4 Report

Published
9 September 2021
Part of
Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland, Health and social care
ISBN
9781802012361

Wave 4 findings (data collected between 4 February and 9 March 2021.) indicate that young adults, women, people with physical and/or mental health conditions, and people in a lower socio-economic group are more likely to report experiencing poor mental health.

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Annex 4: Trust in authorities

Trust is an important indicator of how confident people are in society more widely. In Wave 4 of the SCOVID study, trust in the authorities (police, NHS, UK, and Scottish governments) was assessed.

Police

Around two thirds of respondents (68.6%) said that they trusted the police to some extent and around a third of these respondents reported trusting the police completely.

  • The majority of respondents in the 60+ age group (79.5%) trusted the police compared to 67.9% of 30-59 year olds and around half of the youngest age group (55.0%).
  • Around three quarters of women in the sample reported trusting the police (71.5%) compared to 65.7% of men.
  • Just under three quarters (71.2%) of respondents from the higher SEG reported trusting the police compared to 63.9% of those from the lower SEG.
  • Just over half of respondents with a pre-existing mental health condition felt the police were at least somewhat trustworthy (57.5%) compared to 70.2% of those without a pre-existing mental health condition.

NHS

The majority of respondents (88.2%) reported trusting the NHS to some extent and around half (47.2%) of these respondents endorsed trusting the NHS completely.

Trust in government

Respondents were asked to what extent they felt the UK and Scottish governments could be trusted.

Just under a third of respondents (28.9%) said that they felt the UK government could be trusted to some extent while 60.8% said they did not trust it at all or did not trust it very much.

  • The 60+ age group were more likely to report trusting the UK government to some extent (39.5%) than respondents in either of the other age groups (30-59 year olds 28.5%, 18-29 year olds 15.0%).
  • Respondents from the higher SEG were more likely to report trusting the UK government to some extent (30.0%) compared to respondents from lower SEG (26.9%).
  • Around three quarters of respondents with a pre-existing mental health condition reported not trusting the UK government (73.9%) compared to 58.8% of those without a pre-existing mental health condition.

Over half of all respondents (56.9%) said that they felt the Scottish government could be trusted to some extent while a third (34.0%) said they did not trust it at all or did not trust it very much.

  • The youngest age group were more likely to report trusting the Scottish government to some extent (58.4%) than respondents in either of the other age groups (30-59 year olds 55.8%, 60+ year olds 57.4%).
  • Women were more likely to report trusting the Scottish government to some extent (60.3%) compared to men (53.5%).
  • Respondents from the higher SEG were more likely to report not trusting the Scottish government (35.7%) compared to respondents from lower SEG (31.2%).

Contact

Email: socialresearch@gov.scot

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