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How the COVID-19 pandemic divides society: Towards a better understanding of differences between supporters and opponents of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Germany

Implemented COVID-19 containment measures have been fiercely discussed in Germany and corona-related protests have emerged. We assessed mental health in response to the lockdown in Germany and aimed at detecting factors differentiating opponents and supporters of the COVID-19 containment measures. U...

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Autores principales: Jung, Stefanie, Krüger, Tillmann H.C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier Ltd. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9450499/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36108430
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.09.001
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author Jung, Stefanie
Krüger, Tillmann H.C.
author_facet Jung, Stefanie
Krüger, Tillmann H.C.
author_sort Jung, Stefanie
collection PubMed
description Implemented COVID-19 containment measures have been fiercely discussed in Germany and corona-related protests have emerged. We assessed mental health in response to the lockdown in Germany and aimed at detecting factors differentiating opponents and supporters of the COVID-19 containment measures. Using a cross-sectional online survey (n = 1219) with a mixed-methods approach, we found increased levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms (PHQ-4 and GAD-7), overall lower well-being (WHO-5), worsened sleep, increased prevalence of interpersonal violence (5.2%) as well as more pronounced irritability including anger and aggression compared to pre-COVID-19 times for all participants. Moreover, opponents demonstrated a more pronounced mental burden with more depression and anxiety, more anger and coping difficulties compared to supporters. In line with previous research, we found opponents to be well-educated, financially stable and strongly estranged by their political institutions. Additionally, applying regression analysis, we found anxiety and negative self-concept to differentiate between opponents and supporters of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Qualitative data confirms an increase in mental burden. Taken together, we identify a more vulnerable group opposing COVID-19 containment measures. Our results inform the public about opponents' motives, concerns and needs and open another perspective on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its related containment measures.
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spelling pubmed-94504992022-09-07 How the COVID-19 pandemic divides society: Towards a better understanding of differences between supporters and opponents of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Germany Jung, Stefanie Krüger, Tillmann H.C. J Psychiatr Res Article Implemented COVID-19 containment measures have been fiercely discussed in Germany and corona-related protests have emerged. We assessed mental health in response to the lockdown in Germany and aimed at detecting factors differentiating opponents and supporters of the COVID-19 containment measures. Using a cross-sectional online survey (n = 1219) with a mixed-methods approach, we found increased levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms (PHQ-4 and GAD-7), overall lower well-being (WHO-5), worsened sleep, increased prevalence of interpersonal violence (5.2%) as well as more pronounced irritability including anger and aggression compared to pre-COVID-19 times for all participants. Moreover, opponents demonstrated a more pronounced mental burden with more depression and anxiety, more anger and coping difficulties compared to supporters. In line with previous research, we found opponents to be well-educated, financially stable and strongly estranged by their political institutions. Additionally, applying regression analysis, we found anxiety and negative self-concept to differentiate between opponents and supporters of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Qualitative data confirms an increase in mental burden. Taken together, we identify a more vulnerable group opposing COVID-19 containment measures. Our results inform the public about opponents' motives, concerns and needs and open another perspective on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its related containment measures. Elsevier Ltd. 2022-11 2022-09-07 /pmc/articles/PMC9450499/ /pubmed/36108430 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.09.001 Text en © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Article
Jung, Stefanie
Krüger, Tillmann H.C.
How the COVID-19 pandemic divides society: Towards a better understanding of differences between supporters and opponents of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Germany
title How the COVID-19 pandemic divides society: Towards a better understanding of differences between supporters and opponents of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Germany
title_full How the COVID-19 pandemic divides society: Towards a better understanding of differences between supporters and opponents of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Germany
title_fullStr How the COVID-19 pandemic divides society: Towards a better understanding of differences between supporters and opponents of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Germany
title_full_unstemmed How the COVID-19 pandemic divides society: Towards a better understanding of differences between supporters and opponents of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Germany
title_short How the COVID-19 pandemic divides society: Towards a better understanding of differences between supporters and opponents of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Germany
title_sort how the covid-19 pandemic divides society: towards a better understanding of differences between supporters and opponents of the covid-19 pandemic lockdown in germany
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9450499/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36108430
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.09.001
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