Emotion regulation and mood during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant negative impact on health, mood, and well-being. The risk of becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2 and the possible consequences of hospitalization or death fueled the fear of COVID-19, particularly among vulnerable groups at risk, such as the elderly and those with non-communicable diseases and mental health disorders. Governments around the world installed measures with the aim of preventing the spread of the coronavirus. These measures included hygiene instructions such as washing hands, maintaining a safe distance from other individuals, wearing facemasks, frequently ventilating rooms, and staying home if infected with SARS-CoV-2 (quarantine). In addition, many countries enforced travel restrictions, and some even closed their borders. Within countries, stay-at-home orders (i.e., a lockdown) were often enforced. During these lockdown periods, people were instructed to work from home. For students, the pandemic resulted in an abrupt transition from face-to-face teaching to online education. Bars, restaurants, and other social venues closed their doors, and people were instructed to leave their homes only for necessary groceries or to visit a doctor or pharmacy. However, there was great variability in the strength of these measures between different countries and in the duration of lockdown periods. Some countries refrained from adopting lockdown periods. While the primary purpose of lockdowns was to reduce harm by reducing the spread of the coronavirus, a recent meta-analysis revealed that the lockdown measures had a negligible impact on COVID-19 mortality (i.e., a 0.2% reduction). The latter should be considered an important lesson learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, since the lockdown measures did have significant and profound negative effect on mood, quality of life, and health.

Rights

© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12082758

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https://research-portal.uws.ac.uk/en/publications/emotion-regulation-and-mood-during-the-covid-19-pandemic