Coping with the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perceived Changes in Psychological Vulnerability, Resilience and Social Cohesion before, during and after Lockdown

Sarita Silveira, Martin Hecht, Hannah Matthaeus, Mazda Adli, Manuel C. Voelkle and Tania Singer
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Sarita Silveira: Sarita Silveira, Social Neuroscience Lab, Max Planck Society, Bertha-Benz-Strasse 3, 10557 Berlin, Germany
Martin Hecht: Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, University of Tübingen, 72074 Tübingen, Germany
Hannah Matthaeus: Sarita Silveira, Social Neuroscience Lab, Max Planck Society, Bertha-Benz-Strasse 3, 10557 Berlin, Germany
Mazda Adli: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, CCM, Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Manuel C. Voelkle: Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 12489 Berlin, Germany
Tania Singer: Sarita Silveira, Social Neuroscience Lab, Max Planck Society, Bertha-Benz-Strasse 3, 10557 Berlin, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 6, 1-30

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns have posed unique and severe challenges to our global society. To gain an integrative understanding of pervasive social and mental health impacts in 3522 Berlin residents aged 18 to 65, we systematically investigated the structural and temporal relationship between a variety of psychological indicators of vulnerability, resilience and social cohesion before, during and after the first lockdown in Germany using a retrospective longitudinal study design. Factor analyses revealed that (a) vulnerability and resilience indicators converged on one general bipolar factor, (b) residual variance of resilience indicators formed a distinct factor of adaptive coping capacities and (c) social cohesion could be reliably measured with a hierarchical model including four first-order dimensions of trust, a sense of belonging, social interactions and social engagement, and one second-order social cohesion factor. In the second step, latent change score models revealed that overall psychological vulnerability increased during the first lockdown and decreased again during re-opening, although not to baseline levels. Levels of social cohesion, in contrast, first decreased and then increased again during re-opening. Furthermore, participants who increased in vulnerability simultaneously decreased in social cohesion and adaptive coping during lockdown. While higher pre-lockdown levels of social cohesion predicted a stronger lockdown effect on mental health, individuals with higher social cohesion during the lockdown and positive change in coping abilities and social cohesion during re-opening showed better mental health recovery, highlighting the important role of social capacities in both amplifying but also overcoming the multiple challenges of this collective crisis.

Keywords: vulnerability; resilience; social cohesion; adaptive coping; mental health; COVID-19 pandemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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