Abstract
The corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the restrictions to reduce the spread of the virus has had a large impact on daily life. We investigated the individual differences in the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and first lockdown on optimism and meaning in life in a sample from the Netherlands Twin Register. Participants completed surveys before (N = 9964, Mean age: 48.2, SD = 14.4) and during the first months of the pandemic (i.e. April–May 2020, N = 17,464, Mean age: 44.6 SD = 14.8), with a subsample completing both surveys (N = 6461, Mean age T1: 48.8, SD = 14.5). We applied genetic covariance structure models to twin data to investigate changes in the genetic architecture of the outcome traits due to the pandemic and the interaction of genes with the environmental exposure. Although 56% and 35% of the sample was negatively affected by the pandemic in their optimism and meaning in life, many participants were stable (32% and 43%) or even showed increased optimism and meaning in life (11% and 22%). Subgroups, specifically women, higher educated people, and people with poorer health, experienced larger negative effects. During the first months of the pandemic, slightly lower heritability estimates for optimism and meaning in life (respectively 20% and 25%) were obtained compared to pre-pandemic (respectively 26% and 32%), although confidence intervals overlap. The lower than unity genetic correlations across time (.75 and .63) suggest gene-environment interactions, where the expression of genes that influence optimism and meaning in life differs before and during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is a strong exposure that leads to imbalanced effects on the well-being of individuals. Some people decrease in well-being, while others get more optimistic and consider their lives as more meaningful during the pandemic. These differences are partly explained by individual differences in genetic sensitivity to extreme environmental change. More knowledge on the person-specific response to specific environmental variables underlying these individual differences is urgently needed to prevent further inequality.
Highlights
The corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) quickly evolved into a global pandemic that had an enormous impact on people’s everyday lives
We report individual differences in the effect of the pandemic and first lockdown in the Netherlands on two aspects of well-being: optimism and meaning in life
In line with previous research a substantial part of the sample showed a decrease in optimism and meaning in life during the pandemic
Summary
The corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) quickly evolved into a global pandemic that had an enormous impact on people’s everyday lives. Aspects of well-being on which the COVID-19 pandemic can be expected to differently impact individuals are optimism and meaning in life. Optimism is defined as the tendency to expect positive outcomes in any situation, and is related to physical and mental health and well-being (Scheier and Carver 1985, 1992, 1993; Rasmussen et al 2009) People differ in their level of optimism and due to increased uncertainty during the pandemic individual differences may increase. To understand individual differences in optimism and meaning in life, earlier research investigated the genetic and environmental influences. Twin studies have shown that around 30% of the individual differences in optimism is accounted for by genetic factors (i.e. the heritability), whereas 70% is explained by environmental influences (see van de Weijer et al 2020). To further understand the individual differences in optimism and meaning in life before and during the pandemic, we applied longitudinal twin models
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