ABSTRACT
Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emergency has imposed important challenges in the lives of individuals, particularly since the restriction of free movement. In Spain, this mandatory home confinement started on March 14, 2020. In this scenario, some calls have been made to better understand the exact impact of the quarantine on the emotional status of individuals across time. Materials and Methods: On the first day that the Spanish government imposed the quarantine, our team launched an online longitudinal study to monitor emotional responses to the COVID-19 emergency over time. For 2 weeks, 187 people have responded to a daily diary on emotion functioning. An emotion network analysis was performed to study the network structure of 30 mood states and its changes during the first 2 weeks of the quarantine. Results: The emotional network showed critical changes in the interactions of emotions over time. An analysis of mean emotional levels did not show statistically significant changes in mood over time. Interestingly, two different network patterns were found when the sample was divided between those with favorable responses and those with unfavorable responses. Discussion: This new approach to the study of longitudinal changes of the mood state network of the population reveals different adaptation strategies reflected on the sample's emotional network. This network approach can help identify most fragile individuals (more vulnerable to external stressors) before they develop clear and identifiable psychopathology and also help identify anti-fragile individuals (those who improve their functioning in the face of external stressors). This is one of the first studies to apply an emotional network approach to study the psychological effects of pandemics and might offer some clues to psychologists and health administrators to help people cope with and adjust to this critical situation.
ABSTRACT
Background: Recommendations on lifestyles during quarantine have been proposed by researchers and institutions since the COVID-19 crisis emerged. However, most of these have never been tested under real quarantine situations or derive from older investigations conducted mostly in China and Canada in the face of infections other than COVID-19. The present study aimed at exploring the relationship between a comprehensive set of recommended lifestyles, socio-demographic, and personality variables and mood during the first stages of quarantine. Methods: A virtual snow-ball recollection technique was used to disseminate the survey across the general population in Spain starting the first day of mandatory quarantine (15 March 2020) until three days later (17 March). In total, 2683 Spanish adults (mean age = 34.86 years, SD = 13.74 years; 77.7% women) from the general population completed measures on socio-demographic, COVID-related, behavioral, personality/cognitive, and mood characteristics. Results: In the present study, depression and anger were higher than levels reported in a previous investigation before the COVID-19 crisis, while vigor, friendliness, and fatigue were lower. Anxiety levels were comparable. The expected direction of associations was confirmed for the majority of predictors. However, effect sizes were generally small and only a subset of them correlated to most outcomes. Intolerance of unpleasant emotions, neuroticism, and, to a lesser extent, agreeableness, sleep quality, young age, and time spent Internet surfing were the most robust and strongest correlates of mood states. Conclusions: Some recommended lifestyles (i.e., maintaining good quality of sleep and reducing Internet surfing) might be more important than others during the first days of quarantine. Promoting tolerance to unpleasant emotions (e.g., through online, self-managed programs) might also be of upmost importance. So far, recommendations have been made in general, but certain subgroups (e.g., certain personality profiles and young adults) might be especially vulnerable and should receive more attention.