Mental Health and Psychological Wellbeing during the COVID-19 Lockdown: A Longitudinal Study in the Balearic Islands (Spain)

Abstract

Confining the entire population to a lockdown after the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 was an unprecedented measure designed to protect the health of those living in Spain. The objective of the present study is to assess the evolution of mental health and psychological wellbeing during lockdown. To do this, we carried out a longitudinal study, via an online survey over the eight weeks of lockdown (weekly assessments). Sociodemographic variables were recorded, along with data related to COVID-19, psychological wellbeing (anxiety, depression, psychotropic drugs, consultations made to improve mood or anxiety), life satisfaction, and self-perceived health. A total of 681 individuals participated in the study, 76.8% were women; the mean age was 43 years old (SD = 12.7). Initially, high scores were reported for anxiety, depression, and the number of consultations to improve mood, but these decreased significantly over the study period. The reverse seems to be true for life satisfaction, perceived good health, and intake of psychotropic drugs. We also identified groups whose psychological wellbeing was more susceptible to the effects of lockdown. Women, those worried about their jobs after the pandemic, and those afraid of being infected were the most affected individuals. More generally, after the initial negative effect on psychological wellbeing, various indicators improved over the lockdown period.

Developing a model on the factors affecting family resilience in the COVID-19 pandemic: Risk and protective factors

“…We found no significant differences between gender and family resilience, perceived stress, parental self-efficacy, and marital adjustment. Unlike this study, some studies found differences between females and males (Abdel Jalil et al, 2020 ; Marroquín et al, 2020 ; Ripoll et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Significantly the increase in the symptoms related to anxiety and depression between one and eight weeks was reported. It was especially reported that women over the age of 45, those without a job, and working from home had faced more symptoms of anxiety (Ripoll et al, 2021 ). Another study indicated a temporal increase in anxiety, depression, and stress during the COVID-19 lockdown in a longitudinal study (Planchuelo-Gómez et al, 2020 ).…”

Impact on the Mental and Physical Health of the Portuguese Population during the COVID-19 Confinement

“…In our study, health-related variables (presence of chronic diseases; taking medication regularly; needing to attend consultations in a health centre, hospital, or clinic regularly; having recently performed COVID-19 tests; and self-assessment of health perception) were related to the presence of psychological distress, as had already been described in the studies by Shehata et al [36], Cybulski et al [37], and Ripoll et al [38]. Regarding the evaluation of the perception of the health of our sample, the results show that the group of people who do not experience psychological distress expressed a better evaluation of their health compared to the group that had psychological distress, although both made a good self-assessment of their health.…”

Does Emotional Intelligence Increase Satisfaction with Life during COVID-19? The Mediating Role of Depression

“…Many studies determined that depression reduces satisfaction with life, and a negative relationship was revealed between them [77,86,88,89]. Moreover, the current literature has confirmed that the level of satisfaction with life decreased with the increase of depression of all segments of society, especially during extraordinary periods such as the COVID-19 pandemic [90][91][92].…”