Abstract
Background: The Covid-19 pandemic and related measures represent an enormous burden on mental health. The aim of this study was to investigate longitudinal changes in psychological distress, loneliness, boredom, and resilience over the course of the pandemic and to examine the associations between resilience and extraversion at baseline (summer 2020) and psychological distress, loneliness, and boredom at 5-month-follow-up.Methods: Residents of Tyrol (≥18a) completed an online survey on psychological distress, loneliness, boredom, resilience, and extraversion by using the Brief-Symptom-Checklist, the Three-Item Loneliness Scale, the Multidimensional State Boredom Scale-Short Form (MSBS-SF), the Resilience Scale, and the Extraversion subscale of the Big Five Inventory.Results: Of the 961 baseline participants, 384 took part in the follow-up survey. The percentage of study participants with striking psychological distress remained the same. Similarly, resilience did not change from baseline to follow-up, whereas the number of those experiencing moderate loneliness increased significantly. In contrast, at follow-up, severe loneliness was detected in significantly less people. Boredom decreased significantly over time. A moderate negative association was detected between baseline resilience and psychological distress, loneliness, and boredom at follow-up, and a weak but still significant negative association between extraversion and these outcomes.Discussion: These findings indicate that a subset of the general population consistently suffers from high levels of psychological distress and point to the protective effects of resilience and extraversion in this context. They reemphasize the importance of prevention and mitigation strategies to address these public health problems.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic and related measures represent an enormous burden on mental health [1] and have been associated with increased levels of anxiety, depression, frustration, insecurity, agitation, sleep disturbances, and boredom [2]
Just as at baseline (89.9%), the majority (82.7%) of respondents considered the public health policy measures taken against COVID-19 to be useful at follow-up
We hypothesize that the decrease in boredom may be a result of the wide range of sports and free time activity programs as well as leisure offers in Tyrol, while loneliness may have remained unchanged due to the continued advice to work from home and various confinements, e.g., travel restrictions, school and university closure, and restaurant closure
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic and related measures represent an enormous burden on mental health [1] and have been associated with increased levels of anxiety, depression, frustration, insecurity, agitation, sleep disturbances, and boredom [2]. Extraversion is a personality trait that describes people who are assertive and talkative, seek social closeness, and enjoy making new contacts [9, 10]. They experience new and complex events at a lower stress level and with more positive feelings and are more resistant to stressful situations [11, 12]. The aim of this study was to investigate longitudinal changes in psychological distress, loneliness, boredom, and resilience over the course of the pandemic and to examine the associations between resilience and extraversion at baseline (summer 2020) and psychological distress, loneliness, and boredom at 5-month-follow-up
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