Durosini Ilaria, Triberti Stefano, Savioni Lucrezia, Pravettoni Gabriella
Applied Research Division for Cognitive and Psychological Science, IEO, European Institute of Oncology IRCCS, Milan, Italy.
Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
PLoS One. 2021 Feb 17;16(2):e0247121. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247121. eCollection 2021.
In 2020, the COVID-19 appeared in Italy with an exponential transmission capacity and serious consequences for the whole population. To counter the spread of the virus, the Italian government has adopted an extensive lockdown, forcing citizens to stay at home and avoid social contact. The COVID-19 quarantine represents a unique phenomenon in the recent centuries, and its long-term consequences on people's lives and mental health are still to be understood. This study aimed to explore significant experiences of people who did not contract the virus, yet experienced the quarantine as a potentially stressful condition.
Italians who did not contract the COVID-19 were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews employing the Critical Incident Technique. Interviews were designed to capture the significant experiences related to the lockdown period in Italy. Participants were asked to describe the most significant (1) negative and (2) positive critical events that they personally experienced during the ongoing quarantine. Such events were meant to provide information on their experience of the quarantine as a whole. The audio-taped interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed following Critical Incident Technique's indications.
Twenty two participants described a total of 43 critical events, including 22 negative episodes and 21 positive events experienced during the COVID-19 quarantine. Three categories emerged from the negative episodes and four categories emerged from the positive events described by the participants. Relevant themes both positive and negative concerned mostly relationships (with partners, family, and friends), and the alteration of everyday activities, Also a specific "sensation of emergency" that the participants felt during the pandemic emerged, as an emotionally-charged response to quarantine-related external stimuli.
To our knowledge this is the first in-depth qualitative study investigating the significant negative and positive events that people experienced during the COVID-19 quarantine. Future research could employ analogous event recollection methods but focus on other populations (e.g., fragile subjects or on other national contests), in order to extend the information on the quarantine experience and its possible long-lasting effects.
2020年，新冠病毒在意大利出现，其传播能力呈指数级增长，给全体民众带来了严重后果。为了遏制病毒传播，意大利政府实施了全面封锁，迫使公民居家并避免社交接触。新冠病毒隔离在近几个世纪以来是一种独特现象，其对人们生活和心理健康的长期影响仍有待了解。本研究旨在探索未感染病毒但将隔离视为潜在压力状况的人们的重要经历。
邀请未感染新冠病毒的意大利人参与采用关键事件技术的半结构化访谈。访谈旨在捕捉与意大利封锁期相关的重要经历。参与者被要求描述在当前隔离期间他们个人经历的最重大的（1）负面和（2）正面关键事件。这些事件旨在提供有关他们整体隔离经历的信息。录音访谈被逐字转录，并按照关键事件技术的指示进行分析。
22名参与者共描述了43个关键事件，包括在新冠病毒隔离期间经历的22个负面事件和21个正面事件。参与者描述的负面事件中出现了三类，正面事件中出现了四类。正面和负面的相关主题大多涉及人际关系（与伴侣、家人和朋友）以及日常活动的改变。此外，参与者在疫情期间感受到的一种特定的“紧急感”也出现了，这是对与隔离相关的外部刺激的一种情绪化反应。
据我们所知，这是第一项深入的定性研究，调查人们在新冠病毒隔离期间经历的重大负面和正面事件。未来的研究可以采用类似的事件回忆方法，但关注其他人群（例如，弱势群体或其他国家背景），以扩展关于隔离经历及其可能的长期影响的信息。
