Study Evaluates The Impact Of The Pandemic On The Well-Being Of Brazilians
Research by USP’s Institute of Psychology (IP) helped to quantify and detail something perhaps expected by common sense: in April 2021, when deaths from covid-19 in Brazil already reached 325,000, Brazilians reported feeling less happy and they were more prone to negative states, such as stress and nervousness, compared to 2018. The results also showed that the greater the number of known people who had covid-19, the lower the well-being of the participants. Those who had family members or close friends hospitalized or who died as a result of covid-19 also declared greater adherence to the recommendations for social distancing and isolation.
Common sense, however, is not always confirmed when measured in practice, and studies on the subject can be contradictory. Author of the IP survey, Tania Lucci says that several surveys were carried out on the effect of the pandemic on people and the results varied greatly. While a study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry showed an increase in suicidal thoughts , another even showed a positive impact on everyday life . Still, in the World Happiness Report , global ranking of happiness, Brazil fell from 29th to 41st in 2021.
In the researcher’s assessment, the study carried out at the IP stands out for covering people from all regions of the country, having a scale of subjective well-being adapted to the Brazilian context and having been carried out in different phases (one before and two during the pandemic ). “In addition, we considered how much each respondent was affected by covid in relation to known or close people infected by the virus and the number of close people or relatives who were hospitalized or died as a result of covid”, she says. “Another differential is that we assessed how people’s attitudes towards the pandemic influenced their well-being”, she adds.
She also highlights that, when comparing the well-being indexes of 2018 and 2020, there is no significant difference. The researchers believe that, in 2020, people had not yet realized how the pandemic had changed their lives, which would explain the small difference between the responses of these two years.
“By understanding the effects of the pandemic on the well-being of Brazilians, the study can help the development of adequate psychosocial support programs to disseminate and enable adaptive strategies for coping with crises, helping to transform people into active survivors in the face of the pandemic instead of of passive victims”, argues Tania Lucci.
The article entitled Some lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic: Subjective well-being before and during the pandemic among Brazilian adults was published in a special issue , focused on the impacts of covid-19, of the journal Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology .
1,840 people between 18 and 50 years old from the five regions of Brazil participated in the study. They responded to the Brazilian Subjective Well-Being Scale (EBBES), prepared by the researchers. The scale is composed of 29 items divided into six factors: negative states, positive states, life purpose, satisfaction with the environment, self-esteem linked to appearance and spirituality. For each item, there is a response scale ranging from 0 to 10. “Subjective well-being concerns how people experience and evaluate their lives and specific domains of their lives”, explains Tania Lucci.
Data collection was carried out in three stages: in 2018 (before the pandemic), in June 2020 (beginning of the pandemic, 30 thousand deaths in Brazil) and in April 2021 (during the pandemic, with more than 325 thousand deaths in the Country).
Tania says that, in 2018, before the start of the pandemic, the purpose of the questionnaire was to structure a solid basis for assessing and promoting the well-being of the Brazilian population. “There was a proposal to assess the well-being of Brazilians longitudinally, each year. When the pandemic started, we realized the importance of assessing subjective well-being, comparing it with data collected before the pre-pandemic period, ”she says.
Impacts
In addition to feeling less happy and achieving higher scores for negative states, spirituality scores, which evaluated reports of closeness to God and the habit of praying, in 2021, were also low. This result was different from what the researchers projected: “We expected that, in the face of feelings of vulnerability, spirituality would be a protective factor”, points out Tania. One hypothesis for the result found to be contrary is that people were questioning their faith due to the period of crisis.
In 2021, some participants also reported using anxiety and depression medications, alcohol, and illicit drugs in an attempt at relief. But the use of alcohol and drugs, as well as watching television, were behaviors related to lower well-being.
Socializing through video calls was one of the behaviors associated with higher levels of well-being – Photo: Freepik
Although subjective well-being was negatively impacted in several aspects, behaviors associated with higher levels of well-being were also identified, such as practicing physical exercise, socializing with people they lived with or through video calls, working and do housework. “This helps us reflect on adaptive strategies for active coping and effective public policies to face pandemic and stress situations”, says Tania Lucci.
The study was led by Emma Otta, a professor at the Institute of Psychology at USP, with the participation of Vinicius Frayze David and Ricardo Prist, both from IP, and had the support of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) , Natura and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).