Zaninotto Francesca, Bossi Francesco, Terry Philip, Riccaboni Massimo, Galli Giulia
Department of Psychology, Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom.
MoMiLab, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca, Italy.
Front Psychiatry. 2022 Jun 1;13:826277. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.826277. eCollection 2022.
Several countries imposed nationwide or partial lockdowns to limit the spread of COVID-19 and avoid overwhelming hospitals and intensive care units. Lockdown may involve restriction of movement, stay-at-home orders and self-isolation, which may have dramatic consequences on mental health. Recent studies demonstrated that the negative impact of lockdown restrictions depends on a wide range of psychological and socio-demographic factors.
This longitudinal study aimed to understand how internal factors such as personality and mindfulness traits, and external factors, such as daily habits and house features, affect anxiety, depression and general wellbeing indicators, as well as cognitive functions, during the course of a lockdown.
To address these questions, 96 participants in Italy and the United Kingdom filled out a survey, once a week for 4 weeks, during the first-wave lockdowns. The survey included questions related to their habits and features of the house, as well as validated questionnaires to measure personality traits, mindful attitude and post-traumatic symptoms. Indicators of wellbeing were the affective state, anxiety, stress and psychopathological indices. We also measured the emotional impact of the pandemic on cognitive ability by using two online behavioral tasks [emotional Stroop task (EST) and visual search].
We found that internal factors influenced participants' wellbeing during the first week of the study, while external factors affected participants in the last weeks. In the first week, internal variables such as openness, conscientiousness and being non-judgmental toward one's own thoughts and emotions were positively associated with wellbeing; instead, neuroticism and the tendency to observe and describe one's own thoughts and emotions had detrimental effects on wellbeing. Toward the end of the study, external variables such as watching television and movies, browsing the internet, walking the dog, and having a balcony showed a protective value, while social networking and engaging in video calls predicted lower values of wellbeing. We did not find any effects of wellbeing on cognitive functioning.
Recognizing specific traits and habits affecting individuals' wellbeing (in both short and long terms) during social isolation is crucial to identify people at risk of developing psychological distress and help refine current guidelines to alleviate the psychological consequences of prolonged lockdowns.
几个国家实施了全国范围或部分地区的封锁措施，以限制新冠病毒的传播，并避免医院和重症监护病房不堪重负。封锁可能包括行动限制、居家令和自我隔离，这可能会对心理健康产生重大影响。最近的研究表明，封锁限制的负面影响取决于广泛的心理和社会人口因素。
这项纵向研究旨在了解在封锁期间，诸如人格和正念特质等内部因素，以及诸如日常习惯和房屋特征等外部因素，如何影响焦虑、抑郁和总体幸福感指标以及认知功能。
为了解决这些问题，意大利和英国的96名参与者在第一波封锁期间，连续4周每周填写一次调查问卷。该调查包括与他们的习惯和房屋特征相关的问题，以及用于测量人格特质、正念态度和创伤后症状的经过验证的问卷。幸福感指标包括情感状态、焦虑、压力和精神病理学指数。我们还通过两项在线行为任务[情绪斯特鲁普任务（EST）和视觉搜索]测量了疫情对认知能力的情绪影响。
我们发现，内部因素在研究的第一周影响参与者的幸福感，而外部因素在最后几周影响参与者。在第一周，诸如开放性、尽责性以及对自己的思想和情绪不评判等内部变量与幸福感呈正相关；相反，神经质以及观察和描述自己思想和情绪的倾向对幸福感有不利影响。在研究接近尾声时，诸如看电视和电影、浏览互联网、遛狗以及有一个阳台等外部变量显示出保护作用，而社交网络和进行视频通话则预示着幸福感较低。我们没有发现幸福感对认知功能有任何影响。
认识到在社会隔离期间影响个人幸福感（短期和长期）的特定特质和习惯，对于识别有发展为心理困扰风险的人群，并帮助完善当前指南以减轻长期封锁的心理后果至关重要。
