Psychological Distress during COVID-19 Pandemic Distancing Precautions in Brazil

Abstract

Mass crises are disruptive to people's mental health. The study aimed to explore mental distress during COVID-19 quarantine in a sample of university workers in Brazil. The survey included sets of questions about demographics, health, and support, an open question about major concerns, and the Clinical Outcome Routine Evaluation (CORE-OM), a measure of mental distress. 407 professionals participated in the study: mean age of 40 years (SD = 11.2), mostly female (67.8%), married (64.8%) and fulfilling social distancing to avoid COVID-19 infection (99%). Using the Consensual Qualitative Research for simple qualitative data (CQR-M) the main areas of concern were grouped into six domains, as follows: Work, Health, Isolation, Personal life and routine, Social environment, and Future. Many responses were multiple. They form categories indicating specific concerns within these domains. Quantitative data were analyzed by identifying the simple effects of potential predictors of mental distress. The results indicated medium effects of help with household chores, psychiatric treatment, age and physical exercise. Having someone available to listen was the only variable with a large effect in reducing mental suffering. The hybrid approach showed that the psychological experience during the pandemic is quite multifaceted and complex pointing new clues for public mental health.

Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on international academic study exchange and research mobility programs

“…Also, interactions and other social networks have deteriorated (Elmer et al 2020). It is worth mentioning that these examples also extend beyond mobility scholars to other (international and domestic) workers in academia (Serralta et al 2020). Thus, beyond flexibility, universities and other research institutions can spend more attention to teambuilding activities that help to address the mental well-being of all students, researchers, and staff in academia (Figure 1).…”