Were we happy and we didn’t know it? A subjective dynamic and financial assessment pre-, during and post-COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many changes into people’s lives. Fear, job insecurity, changes in their financial stability, concerns about their future lives have changed the entire lives of people and have affected the cognitive well-being of individuals. The purpose of the present analysis is to measure how the COVID-19 pandemic, along with financial factors, has affected the perceived level of well-being of individuals. We are also interested whether there are differences between life before COVID-19, life now with COVID-19, and life after the COVID-19 pandemic, in terms of future expectations. To address this objective, we performed an ANOVA approach and a GLM estimate on repeated measures for a large sample (1572 respondents) from 43 worldwide countries, during the period May 2020 and July 2021. Our results show that financial factors reflected by both the size of income and changes in personal or family income affect the levels of happiness. Robustness checks using stress as an alternative estimator for happiness have consolidated our results. Additionally, we find that well-being during COVID-19 compared to the previous period decreased, while in future, people expect to be happier, but not more than in the past when they did not know about the existence of this virus. This is one of the first studies to investigate the relationship between happiness and income before, during, and after COVID-19. These findings are important for policymakers to improve the conditions of living in the areas of health and financial stability.

Health Communication and Inequalities in Primary Care Access during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Ethnic Minorities in the United Kingdom: Lived Experiences and Recommendations

“…During the pandemic, confusion from mixed COVID-19 messages, different national guidelines, and the uncertainty of where to access relevant information raised skepticism and eroded the trust in the government and authorities [ 32 , 33 , 34 ]. This uncertainty causing increased anxiety and stress, particularly related to health and economic fears, has also been observed in other countries [ 35 , 36 , 37 ]. For instance, a study in Singapore showed common responses to conflicting COVID-19 messages included fear, concern, panic buying and hoarding [ 35 ].…”

Health Impacts of the COVID-19 Lockdown Measure in a Low Socio-Economic Setting: A Cross-Sectional Study on Reunion Island

“…Nevertheless, it included a score based on relevant local items describing lockdown positive appreciation. Fourth, as with many other studies dealing with the lockdown population health impact [ 3 , 34 , 39 , 40 ], our data were self-reported, which means that the health states of respondents were not confirmed by research examination or medical claims data. The health data may therefore be undermined by reporting bias such as a possible lack of awareness of the child’s health problems by the father compared to the mother.…”

“…In other words, our results are likely to be conservative. Third, the study questionnaire lacked a validated coping scale [ 40 ]. Nevertheless, it included a score based on relevant local items describing lockdown positive appreciation.…”

The relationship between types of depressive changes and suicidal thoughts in middle-aged Korean males

“…Currently, our society is navigating through the post-COVID-19 era. The pandemic exacerbated economic inequalities both on a national and individual level, and these economic repercussions are also exerting impact on personal levels of happiness in the future [40,41]. Research on income distribution after COVID-19 revealed that employment income declined notably for single business owners, households with children under the age of 18 years, and single middle-aged households [28].…”