Politics Go "Viral": A Computational Text Analysis of the Public Attribution and Attitude Regarding the COVID-19 Crisis and Governmental Responses on Twitter

The U.S. confronts an unprecedented public health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, in the presidential election year in 2020. In such a compound situation, a real-time dynamic examination of how the general public ascribe the crisis responsibilities taking account to their political ideologies is helpful for developing effective strategies to manage the crisis and diminish hostility toward particular groups caused by polarization. Social media, such as Twitter, provide platforms for the public's COVID-related discourse to form, accumulate, and visibly present. Meanwhile, those features also make social media a window to monitor the public responses in real-time. This research conducted a computational text analysis of 2,918,376 tweets sent by 829,686 different U.S. users regarding COVID-19 from January 24 to May 25, 2020. Results indicate that the public's crisis attribution and attitude toward governmental crisis responses are driven by their political identities. One crisis factor identified by this study (i.e., threat level) also affects the public's attribution and attitude polarization. Additionally, we note that pandemic fatigue was identified in our findings as early as in March 2020. This study has theoretical, practical, and methodological implications informing further health communication in a heated political environment. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Social Science Computer Review is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Analysis of the Mexican communication plan to control the Covid-19 epidemic

This chapter uses discourse analysis to study the statements made by two main players of the Mexican government: President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Hugo López-Gatell, the Undersecretary for Health Prevention and Promotion. This analysis also discusses the ¡Quédate en casa! audiovisual advertisement campaign and its main character: the heroine SuSana Distancia. It suggests that the government's advertisement campaigns failed to promote the importance of health care and joint responsibility among the community;this is reflected in the number of people infected and deaths in Mexico. This study is made up of six parts: the first introduces the importance of a strategic communication plan;the second discusses the frame of reference;the third describes the analysis method and the corpus study configuration;the fourth includes the results;the fifth ponders the analysis;and the sixth includes the conclusions. The main findings are that the Mexican government never had the intention of promoting the use of masks as an essential measure. Two spots taught the population how to wear a mask;however, the discourse of both the Undersecretary and the President was that wearing a mask was not an essential measure to control infections. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023. All rights reserved.

Return and volatility spillovers among global assets: Comparing health crisis with geopolitical crisis

This study investigates the dynamic mechanism across equity, cryptocurrency, and commodity markets before and during health and geopolitical crisis (Covid-19 and the Ukrainian war). We apply the (TVP-VAR) based extended joint connectedness methodology, to understand return and volatility connectedness of financial markets for 2010–2023 period. The empirical results indicate that spillovers were particularly high during the Covid-19 and Russia-Ukraine war. First, health and geopolitical risks considerably impact the return and volatility system. Second, the value of total joint connectedness during the COVID-19 period was greater than during Russia-Ukraine war crisis. Also, evidence suggests that Commodity markets, received the highest shocks from other markets after Russia-Ukraine war and wheat was the main commodity receiving chocks from both health and geopolitical crisis. Our findings indicate that spillover channels differ depending on the type of crisis. Specifically, low-frequency components are the main transmission channels during the health crisis, whereas high-frequency components are the main transmission channels during the geopolitical crisis. Finally, results indicate that, cryptocurrency markets played some minor role in transmitting risks between markets. Our results are important in understanding how assets affect return and volatility spillover during geopolitical and health crises and are of particular importance to policymakers, market regulators, investors, and portfolio managers.

Pandemic techno-politics in the global South

Brazil has been standing out as one of the worst places on Earth to be during a global health crisis, especially for those whose struggle for basic humanitarian rights is already routine. How do the political environment and historical inequalities in countries like Brazil affect the ways in which public policy and technologies are framed as responses for the pandemic crisis? In this paper we aim to present the sequence of actions and omissions in the fight against sars-cov2 in Brazil, concentrating on measures based on the use of digital technologies and the sociotechnical arrangements unfolding in materialities that give shape to such measures. We will also discuss possible repercussions of the widespread adoption of surveillance technologies as a quick fix to the effects of the pandemic. Our focus is to explain how the materiality of the virus and its political as well as territorial effects are combined with digital technologies as responses (or lack of them) in the fields of healthcare, education, communication and labour in the context of the global South. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Information Polity: The International Journal of Government & Democracy in the Information Age is the property of IOS Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Handbook of Health and Well-Being: Challenges, Strategies and Future Trends

This evidence-based book focuses on contemporary issues related to human health and well-being. Drawing on the first-hand experiences of academics and researchers, it provides a holistic perspective on the importance of both mental and physical health for quality of life. It is divided into seven sections: changing perspectives on well-being;the mental health of students;the well-being of elderly people and marginalized populations;the role of family and teachers;psycho-social support;the right to health;and future perspectives. Covering current topics, such as the challenges posed by pandemics like COVID-19, the book discusses future strategies for addressing contemporary and emerging health issues and the overall well-being of the general public, an area not covered in any of the previous volumes. Furthermore, it explores the need for the involvement of multidisciplinary professionals in examining general health and well-being issues. Given its scope, it is an indispensable resource for a wide range of professionals and researchers from various fields, such as the social sciences, law, public health, medicine, education, and environmental studies. In addition, the book appeals to health policymakers, educational administrators, law enforcement agencies, as well as health workers, psychologists, and social workers dealing with clients in hospitals, educational institutions, and at the community level. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Taylor and Francis Pte Ltd. 2022.

Psychosocial stress and risk assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic: Some preliminary thoughts

Human life and activities are associated with risk, as risk is inherent in all forms of human existence and action. Risk is regarded as a phenomenological variable considering how people perceive it, especially during a crisis they experience. This paper discusses the characteristics of human behavior in a crisis, with an emphasis on hazard perception and risk assessment, for the purpose of understanding people's decisions and adaptation before, during, and after a crisis. The discussion focuses on the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic. © 2022 Čabarkapa et al.

Crise sanitária e atenção primária: a atuação de assistentes sociais nos territórios

Este artigo focaliza a atuação de assistentes sociais na atenção primária em saúde (APS), na pandemia do Covid-19. Discute a crise sanitária, problematizando a ofensiva ultraneoliberal e suas implicações na atenção primária em saúde cuja potencialidade assistencial foi esvaziada por meio de várias medidas tomadas pelo Governo Federal, como mudanças na Política Nacional de Atenção Básica e o Previne Brasil. Foi realizada pesquisa nos Anais do IX Congresso Nacional de Serviço Social em Saúde, destacando trabalhos sobre APS. Foi desenvolvida análise com base no materialismo-histórico-dialético, considerando a historicidade, mediações e contradições. Foram identificados desafios à atuação profissional, como o uso de Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC), o teletrabalho, a precarização da política de saúde. Entre as estratégias de ação utilizadas destacam-se: ações educativas, articulação com a rede socioassistencial, entre outras. Considera-se que a negação de direitos como método governamental distancia o horizonte emancipatório do projeto ético-político da profissão.Alternate :The article focuses on the role of social workers in primary health care (PHC) during the covid-19 pandemic. It discusses the health crisis, questioning the ultra-neoliberal offensive and its implications for primary health care, which its care potential has been emptied, through various measures taken by the Federal Government, such as changes in the National Primary Care Policy and Previne Brasil. Research was carried out in the Annals of the IX National Congress of Social Service in Health, highlighting works on PHC. An analysis was developed based on dialectical-historical-materialism, considering historicity, mediations and contradictions. Challenges to professional performance were identified, such as the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), teleworking, and the precariousness of health policy. Among the action strategies used, the following stand out: educational actions, articulation with the social assistance network, among others. It is considered that the denial of rights as a governmental method distances the emancipatory horizon from the ethical-political project of the profession.

A case study of using natural language processing to extract consumer insights from tweets in American cities for public health crises.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic was a "wake up" call for public health agencies. Often, these agencies are ill-prepared to communicate with target audiences clearly and effectively for community-level activations and safety operations. The obstacle is a lack of data-driven approaches to obtaining insights from local community stakeholders. Thus, this study suggests a focus on listening at local levels given the abundance of geo-marked data and presents a methodological solution to extracting consumer insights from unstructured text data for health communication. METHODS: This study demonstrates how to combine human and Natural Language Processing (NLP) machine analyses to reliably extract meaningful consumer insights from tweets about COVID and the vaccine. This case study employed Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling, Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) emotion analysis, and human textual analysis and examined 180,128 tweets scraped by Twitter Application Programming Interface's (API) keyword function from January 2020 to June 2021. The samples came from four medium-sized American cities with larger populations of people of color. RESULTS: The NLP method discovered four topic trends: "COVID Vaccines," "Politics," "Mitigation Measures," and "Community/Local Issues," and emotion changes over time. The human textual analysis profiled the discussions in the selected four markets to add some depth to our understanding of the uniqueness of the different challenges experienced. CONCLUSIONS: This study ultimately demonstrates that our method used here could efficiently reduce a large amount of community feedback (e.g., tweets, social media data) by NLP and ensure contextualization and richness with human interpretation. Recommendations on communicating vaccination are offered based on the findings: (1) the strategic objective should be empowering the public; (2) the message should have local relevance; and, (3) communication needs to be timely.

The Link of COVID-19-Related Beliefs and Information Sources to Ageism: Myth or Reality?

This study aimed to understand ambivalent ageism among younger adults during the pandemic by examining whether younger adults' beliefs around COVID-19 and the sources from which they received COVID-19 information were associated with the intensity of their ageism. For this aim, survey data were collected from individuals ages 18 to 44 between July and September 2021. Multiple hierarchical regression analysis revealed that benevolent ageism was more intense than hostile ageism when two subscales of ambivalent ageism-benevolent and hostile-were compared. Hispanic or Latinx respondents showed less intense ambivalent ageism than non-Hispanic and non-Latinx respondents. The respondents' beliefs about safety measures and the prioritization of medical resources were significantly associated with the intensity of their ageism. Receiving COVID-19 information via traditional media and social media was also significantly associated with more intense ageism. These findings indicate that social work advocacy should continue to combat ageism in times of crisis.

COVID-19 vaccination and governance in the case of low, middle and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: Global crises, regardless of the place where they started to spread or of the factors that triggered them, require a comprehensive approach, primarily based on good communication, cooperation and mutual support. No individual and no institution should remain indifferent to crises but, on the contrary, be fully aware that any involvement in curbing them matters. Although humanity can be affected by various types of crises, in this paper we refer to the one related to COVID-19 pandemic. There are certain reasons that come to justify our choice: first of all, being a shock with a strong impact on people, its analysis should be performed from several angles; this may bring to light an image with its disparate propagation and measures to counteract it both in developed countries, and especially in those with a shortage of resources. Secondly, in the context of the emergence of vaccines against COVID-19, it is helpful to have an overview of COVID-19 through the lens of the relationship between the vaccination process and the elements that characterize governance, with a differentiated dashboard by country categories worldwide: low, middle and high-income countries. Our study is far from capturing the complexity arising from such social problem, but rather aims to outline the defining role of governance when it comes to providing firm reactions to the COVID-19 crisis. METHODS: Given that our sample consists of a large number of countries, namely 170, first, examined all together, and then, split into three groups (high, middle and low-income), it is challenging to address governance in association with COVID-19 vaccination, in order to see how much they interact and how each of the six aggregate governance indicators of the World Bank (Worldwide Governance Indicators) is reflected in this process. Even if they do not oscillate strongly over relatively short periods of time, reporting on health issues requires a sequential inventory, considering closer time intervals, so as to be able to act promptly. Thus, to better distinguish how the COVID-19 vaccination process evolved in low, middle and high-income countries, but also how it was imprinted by governance, we present the situation quarterly (March, June, September and December), in 2021, the year when the immunization campaigns were the most intense at the global level. Regarding the applied methods, we mention both OLS regressions with robust estimators and a panel model, used to investigate the determinants of COVID-19 vaccination, some of them describing the good governance, as well as other dimensions. RESULTS: The findings point out that the influence of governance on COVID-19 vaccination differs depending on whether a country belongs to high, middle or low-income typology: the strongest determinism of governance on vaccination is encountered in high-income countries, and the weakest in low-income ones; in some cases, governance does not matter significantly. However, exploring the three groups of states included in the research, it is observed that the most relevant factors in this relationship are government effectiveness, regulatory quality and control of corruption. CONCLUSIONS: Besides the order of importance of governance indicators on COVID-19 vaccination, our study indicates that, overall, governance positively shapes the vaccination rate at the level of the chosen sample. In normative terms, these findings can be translated particularly by the fact that they can serve as information to raise awareness on the relevance of the existence of an institutional framework that allows the formulation of strategies according to the patterns of each country, especially since the actionable tools depend on the available resources. As a general conclusion, public policies should be designed in such a way as to strengthen trust in vaccination regulations and in governments, to reduce the multifaceted negative effects of this health crisis and to hope for its total end.

The Role of COVID-19-Associated Fear, Stress and Level of Social Support in Development of Suicidality in Patients Diagnosed with Affective and Stress-Induced Psychiatric Disorders during the COVID-19 Pandemic-A Comparative Analysis.

Only a few studies seem to address suicidality as an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in persons previously affected by psychiatric disorders. The relationship between fear and stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the level of social support and suicidality in patients diagnosed with affective and stress-induced psychiatric disorders prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic were investigated. This study was observational and involved 100 participants. The examined period was from April 2020 to April 2022. The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), the Oslo Social Support Scale 3 (OSSS-3) and general psychiatric interviews were used to obtain data. A statistically significant relationship between the impact of COVID-19-related distress on the occurrence of suicidality and the year of the pandemic χ2(2, N = 100) = 8.347, p = 0.015 was observed. No statistically significant correlation was found between suicidal behavior, stress intensity, fear and the score on the social support scale (p > 0.05). Fear related to the COVID-19 pandemic can only be seen as a contributor to suicidality. Overall, social support does not always act protectively. Previously stressful experiences such as wars, poverty and natural disasters seem to play a significant role in the resilience to each new public health crisis.

Violence against healthcare workers in the middle of a global health crisis: what is it about policy and what to learn from international comparison?

Introduction: Violence against healthcare workers is a global health problem threatening healthcare workforce retention and health system resilience in a fragile post-COVID 'normalisation' period. In this perspective article, we argue that violence against healthcare workers must be made a greater priority. Our novel contribution to the debate is a comparative health system and policy approach. Methods: We have chosen a most different systems comparative approach concerning the epidemiological, political, and geographic contexts. Brazil (under the Bolsonaro government) and the United Kingdom (under the Johnson government) serve as examples of countries that were strongly hit by the pandemic in epidemiological terms while also displaying policy failures. New Zealand and Germany represent the opposite. A rapid assessment was undertaken based on secondary sources and country expertise. Results: We found similar problems across countries. A global crisis makes healthcare workers vulnerable to violence. Furthermore, insufficient data and monitoring hamper effective prevention, and lack of attention may threaten women, the nursing profession, and migrant/minority groups the most. There were also relevant differences. No clear health system pattern can be identified. At the same time, professional associations and partly the media are strong policy actors against violence. Conclusion: In all countries, muchmore involvement from political leadership is needed. In addition, attention to the political dimension and all forms of violence are essential.

Service use preceding and following first referral for psychiatric emergency care at a short-stay crisis unit: A cohort study across three cities and one rural area in England.

BACKGROUND: Internationally, hospital-based short-stay crisis units have been introduced to provide a safe space for stabilisation and further assessment for those in psychiatric crisis. The units typically aim to reduce inpatient admissions and psychiatric presentations to emergency departments. AIMS: To assess changes to service use following a service user's first visit to a unit, characterise the population accessing these units and examine equality of access to the units. METHODS: A prospective cohort study design (ISCTRN registered; 53431343) compared service use for the 9 months preceding and following a first visit to a short-stay crisis unit at three cities and one rural area in England. Included individuals first visited a unit in the 6 months between 01/September/2020 and 28/February/2021. RESULTS: The prospective cohort included 1189 individuals aged 36 years on average, significantly younger (by 5-13 years) than the population of local service users (<.001). Seventy percent were White British and most were without a psychiatric diagnosis (55%-82% across sites). The emergency department provided the largest single source of referrals to the unit (42%), followed by the Crisis and Home Treatment Team (20%). The use of most mental health services, including all types of admission and community mental health services was increased post discharge. Social-distancing measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic were in place for slightly over 50% of the follow-up period. Comparison to a pre-COVID cohort of 934 individuals suggested that the pandemic had no effect on the majority of service use variables. CONCLUSIONS: Short-stay crisis units are typically accessed by a young population, including those who previously were unknown to mental health services, who proceed to access a broader range of mental health services following discharge.

Does personal experience with COVID-19 impact investment decisions? Evidence from a survey of US retail investors.

This paper explores the link between personal experience with COVID-19 and US retail investors' financial decision-making during the first COVID-19 wave. Do retail investors that have personally experienced COVID-19 change their investments after the pandemic outbreak, and if so, why? We use a cross-sectional dataset from an online survey of US retail investors collected in July and August 2020 to assess if and how respondents change their investment decisions after the COVID-19 outbreak. On average retail investors increase their investments during the first wave of COVID-19 by 4.7%, while many of them decrease their investments suggesting a high heterogeneity of investor behaviours. We provide the first evidence that personal experience with the virus can have unexpected positive effects on retail investments. Investors who have personal experience with COVID-19, who are in a vulnerable health category, who tested positive, and who know someone in their close circle of friends or family who died because of COVID-19, increase their investments by 12%. We explain our findings through terror management theory, salience theory and optimism bias, suggesting that reminders of mortality, focussing on selective salient investment information, and over-optimism despite personal vulnerable health contribute to the increase in retail investments. Increased levels of savings, saving goals and risk capacity are also positively associated with increased investments. Our findings are relevant to investors, regulators, and financial advisors, and highlight the importance of providing retail investors with access to investment opportunities in periods of unprecedented shocks such as COVID-19.

The Heterogeneity of Language Policies and its Related Health Crisis Communication about COVID-19 in Lesotho and South Africa

On 7 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a new unknown pneumonia outbreak in China. Over the following weeks, COVID-19 spread to an endemic situation mainly concentrated in the Hubei province, with few isolated cases outside China. The WHO hesitated until 11 March to use the term pandemic, although cases of COVID-19 were reported already in Europe at that time. Sub-Saharan Africa only reported its first cases in mid-February, with some travellers from or returning mainly from Italy, but also Austria, Germany and France. It was only then that the media in South Africa started to report extensively about the COVID-19 outbreak. Various governmental ministries in South Africa or Lesotho informed their populations about COVID-19 and their regulations to control the outbreak of the disease. Although most of the information was in English, a substantial amount of audio and video files were available in several African Languages in South Africa, plus many governmental announcements in Sesotho in Lesotho. Governments and healthcare professionals were aware of the risks of fake news being spread, but they tried to be as transparent as possible with the public. This paper analyses how different countries like Lesotho and South Africa broadcasted COVID-19 in media, official government websites and social media platforms. Cognizance of language usage in media will be looked at as most African countries are multilingual and such life-threatening topics and far-reaching political interventions in all spheres of life should be communicated as inclusively and transparent as possible. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

The sense of loneliness in couples and the impact of the health crisis: A review of literature

Objective: The purpose of this review is to define the feeling of loneliness within a couple while taking into consideration the factors that lead a person to feel lonely in a couple or in a romantic relationship. Our goal is to understand the effects of the feeling of loneliness on these individuals during the global health crisis brought on by COVID-19 and to take these factors into account in designing effective therapeutic care. The different manifestations of loneliness in a couple should also be highlighted. Method(s): We used the PRISMA methodology to select the relevant studies. The keywords ("Solitude" or "Loneliness") and ("Couple" or "Married" or "Partnership") allowed us to select 19 references dealing with the theme. We conducted searches of the following databases: "Cairn", "PsychInfo and Psycarticle", "PubMed and Medline", "ScienceDirect" and finally, "Web of Science" in order to find articles covering a ten-year period. Result(s): There are different definitions for the subjective experience of loneliness. The review of the literature highlights the fact that loneliness can lead to positive or negative psychological consequences (it can lead to the development of creative capacity or, on the contrary, result in depression in some cases). Attachment patterns have been shown to be the basis for the tolerance of feelings of loneliness. Indeed, an anxious attachment would encourage the couple to avoid the feeling of loneliness. According to the literature, this defensive mechanism of seeking presence in the couple would make it possible to limit the impact of loneliness. This solitude depends on the level of relational quality within the couple. A poor relational quality would lead to greater loneliness and would impact intimate relationships. Loneliness is supposedly not experienced in the same way by men and women: Men seem to be more protected by marriage while women's level of loneliness may be higher because of the household chores they have to do. Men and women would nevertheless remain subject to the phenomena of contamination, i.e., when one of the partners feels lonely, the other will also be lonely. However, it seems that marriage protects against feelings of loneliness and its negative consequences. Loneliness does not have only negative effects. It can be beneficial for developing creativity and finding oneself. The periods of confinement during the COVID-19 crisis provided people with an increase in the amount of time they didn't normally have on a daily basis. This may have been beneficial for some people and can be associated with positive emotions. Individuals who spent the lockdowns with others felt less alone and experienced less psychological distress. However, confinements did produce some negative effects on couples. The increased stress of the pandemic and the constant proximity led to an increase in spousal abuse. The consequences of confinement for couples whose relationships were already troubled resulted in frequent separation and/or divorce. The potential for conflict was related to limited financial resources, not working, and the significant risk of contracting SARS COV-2. Conclusion(s): The articles dealing with the feeling of loneliness that we reviewed presented quantitative methods to the detriment of qualitative aspects and focused largely on the negative aspects of the feeling of loneliness. Other academic disciplines, such as sociology, demonstrate a lack of understanding concerning what is at stake with the feeling of loneliness. The articles intersect and tend to highlight the attachment relationships that are formed in childhood as a determining factor in the feeling of solitude later in life. The quality of the relationship, gender, and marital status are also factors to be considered. Loneliness has a clear influence on the well-being of the relationship but it is not an individual characteristic of the relationship itself. It finally appears as an individual characteristic with an impact on the assessment of the quality of the relationship and on the appreciatio of the spouse.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Masson SAS

Le sentiment de solitude dans le couple et l'impact de la crise sanitaire : une revue de la littérature

Résumé Cette revue a pour objectif de faire état de la littérature sur le sentiment de solitude au sein du couple, tout en comprenant les facteurs qui conduisent une personne à se sentir seule dans un couple ou dans une relation amoureuse. Il s'agit de considérer les effets du sentiment de solitude sur les couples et les différentes formes qu'il peut prendre durant la période de pandémie liée au COVID-19. Ainsi, cette revue de littérature met en lumière le fait que la solitude peut entraîner des conséquences psychologiques positives ou négatives et que les types d'attachement se révèlent être le fondement de la tolérance au sentiment de solitude. Au sein du couple, la solitude et ses impacts déprendront du niveau de qualité relationnelle, du genre et du statut matrimonial. Sous certains aspects, le mariage peut protéger du sentiment de solitude, mais il peut être malmené, comme ce fut le cas durant la pandémie mondiale de COVID-19. Le manque de communication entre les partenaires, l'anxiété liée à la pandémie et le fait de se retrouver avec soi-même ont renforcé un sentiment de solitude parfois déjà existant, au détriment de la durabilité des couples. Objective The purpose of this review is to define the feeling of loneliness within a couple while taking into consideration the factors that lead a person to feel lonely in a couple or in a romantic relationship. Our goal is to understand the effects of the feeling of loneliness on these individuals during the global health crisis brought on by COVID-19 and to take these factors into account in designing effective therapeutic care. The different manifestations of loneliness in a couple should also be highlighted. Methods We used the PRISMA methodology to select the relevant studies. The keywords ("Solitude” or "Loneliness”) and ("Couple” or "Married” or "Partnership”) allowed us to select 19 references dealing with the theme. We conducted searches of the following databases: "Cairn”, "PsychInfo and Psycarticle”, "PubMed and Medline”, "ScienceDirect” and finally, "Web of Science” in order to find articles covering a ten-year period. Results There are different definitions for the subjective experience of loneliness. The review of the literature highlights the fact that loneliness can lead to positive or negative psychological consequences (it can lead to the development of creative capacity or, on the contrary, result in depression in some cases). Attachment patterns have been shown to be the basis for the tolerance of feelings of loneliness. Indeed, an anxious attachment would encourage the couple to avoid the feeling of loneliness. According to the literature, this defensive mechanism of seeking presence in the couple would make it possible to limit the impact of loneliness. This solitude depends on the level of relational quality within the couple. A poor relational quality would lead to greater loneliness and would impact intimate relationships. Loneliness is supposedly not experienced in the same way by men and women: Men seem to be more protected by marriage while women's level of loneliness may be higher because of the household chores they have to do. Men and women would nevertheless remain subject to the phenomena of contamination, i.e., when one of the partners feels lonely, the other will also be lonely. However, it seems that marriage protects against feelings of loneliness and its negative consequences. Loneliness does not have only negative effects. It can be beneficial for developing creativity and finding oneself. The periods of confinement during the COVID-19 crisis provided people with an increase in the amount of time they didn't normally have on a daily basis. This may have been beneficial for some people and can be associated with positive emotions. Individuals who spent the lockdowns with others felt less alone and experienced less psychological distress. However, confinements did produce some negative effects on couples. The increased stress of the pandemic and the constant proximity led to an increase in spousal abuse. The consequences of confinement for couples whose relationships were already troubled resulted in frequent separation and/or divorce. The potential for conflict was related to limited financial resources, not working, and the significant risk of contracting SARS COV-2. Conclusion The articles dealing with the feeling of loneliness that we reviewed presented quantitative methods to the detriment of qualitative aspects and focused largely on the negative aspects of the feeling of loneliness. Other academic disciplines, such as sociology, demonstrate a lack of understanding concerning what is at stake with the feeling of loneliness. The articles intersect and tend to highlight the attachment relationships that are formed in childhood as a determining factor in the feeling of solitude later in life. The quality of the relationship, gender, and marital status are also factors to be considered. Loneliness has a clear influence on the well-being of the relationship but it is not an individual characteristic of the relationship itself. It finally appears as an individual characteristic with an impact on the assessment of the quality of the relationship and on the appreciation of the spouse.

COVID-19 Pandemic, Crisis Responses and the Changing World: Perspectives in Humanities and Social Sciences

This book comprehensively analyzes COVID-19 and its impact as well as the response from the perspectives of humanities and social sciences. This book covers topics ranging from geopolitical relations to regional integration, public health governance and even the evolution of professional practices in the time of COVID-19. It constitutes a precious and timely interdisciplinary reference for anyone aspiring not only to grasp the origins and dynamics of the present challenge, but also to identify future opportunities for further growth and holistic progress for humanity. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021.

[Therapeutic meals in a psychiatric day hospital for children and sanitary restrictions: Institutional psychotherapy and Covid-19]. / Le repas thérapeutique en hôpital de jour de pédopsychiatrie à l'épreuve des contraintes sanitaires : thérapie institutionnelle et Covid-19.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pordegui children's hospital - a day psychiatric centre at Montauban hospital - first closed its doors in March 2019, like many ambulatory care facilities. As a result, the first confinement had a strong impact on the accessibility to care for particularly vulnerable patients. While the lockdown has been eased after a few weeks, the respect of hygiene rules and barrier gestures still impacts the therapeutic framework of the institution.This article aims to document reflections on the effects that the current arrangements, inherent to the pandemic health situation, seem to produce over the organization of care in psychiatric children's hospitals, using the example of therapeutic meals.The latter should not be taken for granted, even though the minimal conditions for this caring time have been reinstated. Such conditions include a repetitive, structuring and reassuring framework with schedules, collective arrangements characterized by the regular presence pattern of the caregivers and their availability, as well as feedback sessions in the form of institutional meetings. After the reopening of the center, specific phenomena that were not so identifiable during the other care times were noticed during the meals of individual and group of patients. A situational analysis was led, based on observations, experience with patients and cross-examination (institutional psychotherapy and phenomenology) in order to understand these movements and highlight what seems to be irreducible for a meal to be therapeutic.

Respecting older people's rights and freedoms during a health crisis

The major restrictions on rights and freedoms imposed by the management of the COVID-19 crisis have caused significant psychological, and sometimes physical, suffering for older people with decreased independence living in collective housing. Without calling into question the decisions made by these housing establishments, which for the most part were motivated by a desire and need to protect their residents, the aim of this contribution is to question the processes that led—and still lead—to decisions restricting freedom, the proportionality of which may be questioned. In fact, those managing such establishments have had to make decisions in an ambiguous legal and social context, marked by the proliferation of non-decisive guidelines and recommendations (soft law acts), which has led to practical difficulties in the implementation of health standards within the establishments and has had a considerable impact on residents' individual freedoms. Some of these restrictions could be described as forms of abuse. © 2022 Fondation Nationale de Gerontologie. All rights reserved. Les restrictions majeures de droits et libertés imposées par la gestion de la crise épidémique de Covid-19 ont engendré des souffrances psychiques et parfois physiques importantes pour les personnes âgées vivant en établissement d'hébergement pour personnes dépendantes. Sans remettre en cause les décisions des établissements qui, pour une large majorité, ont été motivées par la volonté et la nécessité de protéger leurs résidents, l'objectif de cette contribution vise à interroger les processus qui ont conduit – et conduisent encore – à des décisions restrictives de liberté dont la proportionnalité peut être discutée. En effet, les directions d'établissement ont dû prendre des décisions dans un contexte juridique et social ambigu, marqué par le foisonnement d'orientations et de recommandations non décisoires (actes de droit souple), ce qui a engendré des difficultés pratiques dans la mise en œuvre des normes sanitaires au sein des établissements et a eu un impact considérable sur l'exercice des libertés individuelles des résidents dont certaines restrictions pourraient être qualifiées de forme de maltraitance. © 2022 Fondation Nationale de Gerontologie. All rights reserved.