Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Confinement and Its Relationship with Meditation

Óliver Jiménez, Laura C. Sánchez-Sánchez and José M. García-Montes
Additional contact information
Óliver Jiménez: Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy, Campus de Teatinos, University of Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain
Laura C. Sánchez-Sánchez: Departament of Evolutionary and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Science Education and Sport, University of Granada, Calle Santander, N° 1, 52071 Melilla, Spain
José M. García-Montes: Departament of Psychology, University of Almeria, Carretera Sacramento, S/N, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120 Almería, Spain

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 18, 1-14

Abstract: The objective of this study was to evaluate the psychological impact of confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, considering any protective factors, such as the practice of meditation or self-compassion, and their relationship with different lifestyles and circumstances of adults residing in Spain. A cross-sectional study was done using an anonymous online survey in which 412 participants filled out the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-2; the Impact of Events Scale; and the Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form, reporting severe symptomatology of posttraumatic stress and mild anxiety and depression. Quality of cohabitation and age were found to be key variables in the psychological impact of confinement. The impact of confinement was more negative for those who reported very poor cohabitation as opposed to very good ( F (3, 405) = 30.75, p ≤ 0.001, d = 2.44, r = 0.054) or for those under 35 years of age compared to those over 46 ( F (2, 409) = 5.14, p = 0.006, d = 0.36). Practicing meditation was not revealed as a protective factor, but self-compassion was related to better cohabitation during confinement ( F (3, 403) = 11.83, p ≤ 0.001, d = 1.05). These results could be relevant in designing psychological interventions to improve coping and mental health in other situations similar to confinement.

Keywords: coronavirus; COVID-19; stress; anxiety; depression; mindfulness; mental health; Spain; psychological impact; confinement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/18/6642/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/18/6642/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:18:p:6642-:d:412401

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().