Daily Monitoring of Emotional Responses to the Coronavirus Pandemic in Serbia: A Citizen Science Approach

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, a health emergency with international consequences, has brought serious impact on all aspects of society and affects not only health and economy, but psychological functioning and mental health as well. This research was conducted in order to examine and further our understanding of emotional reactions to the ongoing pandemic. Change in emotional reactions during the pandemic and relations with specific pandemic related behaviors and personality traits from the revised Reinforcement sensitivity theory were explored. The research was conducted in Serbia for 35 days while the country was in a state of emergency, as a citizen science project. Out of the 1526 participants that joined the study, 444 (67% female) had measures for all five weeks. Longitudinal changes in four emotional states during the pandemic were examined: worry, fear, boredom, and anger/annoyance. Results indicate a decrease in all four emotional states over time. The biggest decrease was present in case of worry, followed by fear and boredom. Regression analysis showed that personality dimensions, as well as behavioral responses in this situation significantly predicted emotional reactions. Findings revealed the Behavioral activation system was significantly related to worry, fear and boredom, Fight with boredom and anger, and the Behavioral inhibition system with anger. Adherence to protection measures, as well as increased exposure to the media, had significant positive relations with worry and fear. These results indicate that both stable characteristics and specific pandemic-related behaviors are significantly related to emotional response during the pandemic.

Emotional Well-being During the First Four Months of COVID-19 in the United States

“…A variety of repeated measures well-being data related to COVID-19 were collected after the pandemic began. Collectively, these studies show that negative affect tends to be higher than positive affect, especially for younger adults (Klaiber et al 2020 ) and that negative affect tends to decrease over time (Sadiković et al 2020 ). Without the pre-pandemic time point, however, it is difficult to draw conclusions about how the pandemic has influenced well-being.…”

“…For example, in an age-mixed sample of North American adults surveyed daily for 1 week in March and April 2020, younger adults reported lower positive affect and higher negative affect than did older adults (Klaiber et al 2020 ). Similarly, after a state of emergency was declared, an age-mixed sample of adults in Serbia completed daily reports of negative affect over a 5-week period in March and April 2020 (Sadiković et al 2020 ). Using a repeated measures ANOVA framework, the authors reported steady decreases in fear and worry over the 5-week period.…”

A person-centered approach in studying coronavirus pandemic response: The role of HEXACO-PI-R and PANAS dimensions

“…Furthermore, anger and confusion due to the pandemic were more severe in the presence of stressors such as longer quarantine period, fear of infection and frustration (e.g. Brooks et al, 2020 ), but negative emotions (e.g., worry, fear, anger and boredom) generally declined over time ( Sadiković et al, 2020 ). On the other hand, previous studies on compliance with protective measures focus mostly on predictors of positive behavior change since in the absence of a vaccine, protective measures are of great importance to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and prevent health care systems of collapsing (Flatten the curve, 2020; World Health Organization, 2020 ).…”

“…Although personality traits as stable dispositions for certain patterns of behavior and emotional reactions can significantly affect individual differences in responses to circumstances caused by pandemic ( Taylor, 2019 ), yet there are fewest studies (e.g., Bacon & Corr, 2020 ; Carvalho et al, 2020 ; Harper et al, 2020 ; Sadiković et al, 2020 ) on the role of stable dispositions in the prediction of various behaviors and consequences. Previous studies showed that Extraversion is associated with lower, and Conscientiousness with higher compliance to social distancing measures and hand washing ( Carvalho et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Personal safety is of biggest concern for those with higher Fight/Flight/Freeze system and they are also more likely to self-isolate ( Bacon & Corr, 2020 ). Another study ( Sadiković et al, 2020 ) showed that the Behavioral approach system was negatively related to fear and worry and positively to boredom, Fight was associated with boredom and anger, while Behavioral inhibition system was related to anger.…”