COVID-19 lockdown: Impact on emotional well-being and relationship to habit and routine modifications

Abstract

We examine the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on emotional well-being and its relationship to habit and routine modifications in a sample of 584 participants aged 18-65 (M_age = 35.3; 75.3% females) on lockdown in Spain. Participants assessed their perceived changes in emotional well-being during the lockdown. They reported a perceived increase in negative affect and a perceived decrease in positive affect during this period, compared to before. Regarding habits and routines, there was an increase in media and social media consumption, home cleaning and tidying up, eating and sleeping, cooking and baking, reading, talking or doing activities with other people in the home, and handwashing. Increases in media and social media use, eating, and doing nothing were significantly associated with an increase in negative affect and a decrease in positive affect. Overall, the results highlight the importance that leisure activities have in determining emotional well-being during the lockdown.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• lockdown
• emotional well-being
• habits and routines

Acknowledgments

The author is thankful to A. Angulo-Brunet for providing feedback on the statistical analyses and to I. Ferrer for contributing to the classification of the open-ended questions.

Ethics approval

The study got ethical approval (Certificate number 0153) from the Institutional Committee for Ethical Review of Projects from Pompeu Fabra University.

Notes

1 Percentages in the section “Changes in emotional well-being” are based on three categories of response: more, same, and less.

2 Percentages in the sub-sections of “Changes in habits and routines” are based on four categories of response: more often, same, less often, did not do it before or now.

Additional information

Funding

The author is supported by Programa de Ayudas Ramón y Cajal, Ref. RYC2016-19770, funded by Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, and the European Social Fund (ESF).