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. 2020 Dec 1:11:554624.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.554624. eCollection 2020.

COVID-19: A Psychosocial Perspective

Syed Hassan Raza  1 , Wajiha Haq  2 , Muhammad Sajjad  3
Affiliations
Free PMC article

COVID-19: A Psychosocial Perspective

Syed Hassan Raza et al. Front Psychol. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

The World Health Organization declares coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic, and The World Economic Forum argues that the COVID-19-induced global lockdown is the biggest psychological experiment. This study is an attempt to empirically evaluate the possible adverse psychosocial effects caused by COVID-19-related lockdown, if any. To do so, a cross-sectional study is conducted based on a comprehensive online survey using snowball sampling to analyze the level of social and psychological impacts (i.e., stress, belief in stakeholders, fear of losing job, and life satisfaction) during the early stage of the outbreak in Pakistan. The questionnaire is filled out by the residents in Pakistan including working professionals and students (sample size is 428). We find that the development of stress due to COVID-19-induced lockdown is particularly because of mood swings. Additionally, a higher prevalence of stress in the children of highly educated mothers is evident (95% confidence). To assess the belief in stakeholders, we focus gender, demographics, and education. It is observed that parental education and age significantly affect the belief in several stakeholders (i.e., government, media, religious clerics, and family). The lockdown-induced fear of losing job is lower in female and male children whose fathers are graduates. Lastly, we observe that food storage and "no fear of losing job" significantly increases the odds of life satisfaction. These findings have important implications in the context of social insurance, parental education, and policy related to COVID-19 at various levels. This study further facilitates to understand the factors that might affect the mental health and life satisfaction of people during such pandemics.

Keywords: COVID-19; psychology; public health; stress; well-being.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Frequency distribution of key indicators of respondents.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Frequency distribution of parental education of respondents.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Stress distribution of respondents.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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