Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic (including lockdown) is likely to have had profound but diverse implications for mental health and well-being, yet little is known about individual experiences of the pandemic (positive and negative) and how this relates to mental health and well-being, as well as other important contextual variables. Here, we analyse data sampled in a large-scale manner from 379,875 people in the United Kingdom (UK) during 2020 to identify population variables associated with mood and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to investigate self-perceived pandemic impact in relation to those variables. We report that while there are relatively small population-level differences in mood assessment scores pre- to peak-UK lockdown, the size of the differences is larger for people from specific groups, e.g. older adults and people with lower incomes. Multiple dimensions underlie peoples’ perceptions, both positive and negative, of the pandemic’s impact on daily life. These dimensions explain variance in mental health and can be statistically predicted from age, demographics, home and work circumstances, pre-existing conditions, maladaptive technology use and personality traits (e.g., compulsivity). We conclude that a holistic view, incorporating the broad range of relevant population factors, can better characterise people whose mental health is most at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic (including lockdown) is likely to have had profound but diverse implications for mental health and well-being, yet little is known about individual experiences of the pandemic (positive and negative) and how this relates to mental health and well-being, as well as other important contextual variables
The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have had profound but diverse implications for mental health and well-being, yet little is known about individual experiences of the pandemic and how this relates to mental health and well-being, as well as other important contextual variables
Expert groups have posited that the impact of the pandemic on mental health is modulated by a variety of factors, including (i) aspects of demographics such as age or ethnicity, (ii) social networks, (iii) financial and occupational circumstances (iv), being shielded or having carer responsibilities, (v) pre-existing mental health symptoms, (vi) maladaptive online technology use, (vii) personality traits and (viii) tendency towards compulsive behaviours[2,3,4,5,6,7]
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic (including lockdown) is likely to have had profound but diverse implications for mental health and well-being, yet little is known about individual experiences of the pandemic (positive and negative) and how this relates to mental health and well-being, as well as other important contextual variables. Previous work on the relationship between COVID-19 and mental health has focussed on relatively narrow aspects of mental health, failing to consider the diverse psycho-socio-economic variables that are likely to modulate impact, and not taking into account self-perceived impact of the pandemic (positive and negative)[8,9,10,11,12]. It remains unclear which segments of society have been most affected or whether expert opinions align with population perspectives. This broader database includes responses to a questionnaire instrument comprehensively probing selfperceived pandemic impact in 79,779 out of the 112,046 respondents in May–June 2020
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