Creative Lockdown? A Daily Diary Study of Creative Activity During Pandemics

Karwowski, Maciej; Zielińska, Aleksandra; jankowska, dorota; Strutyńska, Elżbieta; omelańczuk, iwona; Lebuda, Izabela

doi:10.31234/osf.io/kvesm

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 55 publications

(71 reference statements)

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“…Creativity changes were first estimated based on a self-report of a change as perceived by each participant (SCC). SCC revealed that participants experienced being more creative during the lockdown than the period before, which is consistent with previous studies that reported an increase in everyday creativity during the lockdown 32,33 . SCC correlated with the BFI-O score, which captures a basal creative personality trait 38,39 and which was in the range of what has been previously observed 40 .…”

Section: Creativity During the Lockdownsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Several studies reported how the pandemic and lockdown had increased psychological distress, mood disorders, loneliness, and anxiety [1][2][3][4][5] , with a potential negative impact on creativity. Nevertheless, the few existing scientific studies that explored creativity during the COVID-19 pandemic have indeed suggested that the lockdown period facilitated everyday creativity 32,33 or that creative abilities could help people dealing with the situation and improve their wellbeing 3,34,35 . However, those studies did not assess how creativity changes related to environmental, contextual, or emotional changes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Through thick and thin: changes in creativity during the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lopez-Persem¹,

Bieth²,

Guiet³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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COVID-19 took us by surprise. We all had to face a new situation never encountered before and find new solutions to the problems it generated, either related to the disease or the lockdown's consequences. The lockdown and pandemic crisis caused new issues and placed us in an entirely new context, changing our way of life, work time and conditions, and habits. Coping with such an unprecedented situation may have stimulated creativity. However, the situation also restricted our liberties and wellbeing and triggered health or psychological difficulties. Worrying, concerns, challenging conditions of confinement may have hampered creativity or its expression. Hence, wellbeing factors related to affective experience, living conditions, social interactions, as well as workload or available free time, may have impacted creativity during the lockdown. We carried out an online survey based on a self-administered questionnaire to examine whether the first lockdown period related to the COVID-19 pandemic (spring 2020) was associated with creativity changes and explore the role of several factors in these changes. We measured self-reported creativity changes using two approaches: changes in creative self-efficacy and creative activities and achievements. We related them to several variables estimating time availability, conditions of confinement, social interactions, and affective experience of the situation. Despite a global negative subjective experience of the situation, individuals who participated in our survey (n=380) reported that they were on average more creative during the lockdown than before and engaged in more creative activities. The converging results from self-perceived and activity-based measures showed that this positive change could be linked with more time availability, feeling more motivated or inspired, or the need to solve a problem. However, when negative changes in creativity were experienced, they were instead related to negative affective experiences, including stress and anxiety, a low mood, a feeling of pressure, or a lack of resources or opportunities. This study helps to document what happened during the first lockdown period in France regarding aspects of creativity, showing some positive outcomes of the situation despite its negative consequences, and providing cues about the key factors that stimulated or, on the contrary, blocked creativity.

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Section: Creativity During the Lockdownsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Through thick and thin: changes in creativity during the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lopez-Persem¹,

Bieth²,

Guiet³

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…It is interesting to note that only social identity affirming behaviours had a significant impact on QoL. In fact, as previously discussed, the involvement in creative behaviors could have a positive impact on mental health and QoL during a lockdown period ( Kanekar & Sharma, 2020 ; Karwowski et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…In order to overcome perceived threats and contagion fear in a social distancing context, people tried to cope by carrying out behaviors that affirm social (e.g., interacting virtually online with cultural groups sharing media about life before COVID-19) and national identity (e.g., cooking typical recipes; Jaspal & Nerlich, 2020 ; Kachanoff et al, 2020 ). These behaviors may well act as strategies which help to cope with the fear of contagion, transiently enhancing well-being and therefore QoL ( Karwowski et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychosocial variables and quality of life during the COVID-19 lockdown: a correlational study on a convenience sample of young Italians

Lardone

Sorrentino

Giancamilli

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Background In 2020, to limit the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19), many countries, including Italy, have issued a lengthy quarantine period for the entire population. For this reason lifestyle has changed, bringing inevitable repercussions to the Quality of Life (QoL). The present study aims to identify which psychosocial variables predict behaviors capable of affecting the QoL during the lockdown period, potentially highlighting factors that might promote well-being and health in the Italian population during the epidemic. Methods Between 27 April 2020 and 11 May 2020, we administered a web-survey to a sample of young Italian people (age M = 21.2; SD = 3.5; female = 57.7% of the sample). Employing variance-based structural equation modeling, we attempted to identify whether social connectedness, social support, and loneliness were variables predictive of the QoL of young Italians. We also sought to identify specific psychological factors, such as symbolic threat, realistic threat, and the threat from potentially contaminated objects, was correlated to COVID-19 fear and whether engaging in particular behaviors was likely to improve the QoL. Results Our results suggest that social connectedness and loneliness are significant predictors of QoL, while social support did not have a significant effect on QoL. Furthermore, we observed that symbolic and realistic threats and the threat from potentially contaminated objects are significant and positive predictors of COVID-19 fear. Moreover, COVID-19 fear had significant and positive relationships with the carrying out of specific behaviors, such as creative activities during the isolation period and that this related to affirming individuals’ country-specific identity. Finally, COVID-19 fear is a significant predictor of behavioral factors related to the adherence to public health advice in line with national guidance regarding the containment of COVID-19; this factor, however, did not correlate with QoL. Conclusion Our results suggest the importance of social context and psychological factors to help devise intervention strategies to improve the QoL during lockdown from epidemic events and, in particular, support the importance of promoting social communication and accurate information about the transmission of the virus.

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“…the function of shopping is to ensure oneself of the necessary ingredients to stay alive) [72]. People became task-oriented, yet were less to engage in creative thinking which is primarily driven primarily by enjoyment and meaning in the activities [74,75]. Consequently, the form of the activities did not leave enough room for aspects of meaning, such as shopping together for fun.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meaningful Activities During COVID-19 and Association With Mental Health in Belgian Adults.

Cruyt

Vriendt

Velde

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background: The spread of COVID-19 has affected people’s daily lives and the lockdown may have led to a disruption of daily activities and a decrease of people’s mental health. Aim: To identify correlates of adults’ mental health during the COVID-19 lockdown in Belgium and to assess the role of meaningful activities in particular. Methods: A cross-sectional web survey for assessing mental health (General Health Questionnaire), resilience (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale), meaning in activities (Engagement in Meaningful Activities Survey) and demographics was conducted between April 24 and May 4, 2020. Hierarchical linear regression was used to identify key correlates. Results: Participants (N=1781) reported low mental health (M=14.85/36). In total, 42.4% of the variance in mental health could be explained by variables such as gender, having children, living space, marital status, health condition, and resilience (β= -.33). Loss of meaningful activities was strongly related to mental health (β= -.36) and explained 9% incremental variance (R2 change= .092, p<.001) above control variables.Conclusions: The extent of performing meaningful activities during the COVID-19 lockdown in Belgium is positively related to adults’ mental health. Insights from this study can be taken into account during future lockdown measures in case of pandemics.

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Creative Lockdown? A Daily Diary Study of Creative Activity During Pandemics

Cited by 6 publications

References 55 publications

Through thick and thin: changes in creativity during the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Through thick and thin: changes in creativity during the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Psychosocial variables and quality of life during the COVID-19 lockdown: a correlational study on a convenience sample of young Italians

Meaningful Activities During COVID-19 and Association With Mental Health in Belgian Adults.

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