Impact of a Long Lockdown on Mental Health and the Role of Media Use: Web-Based Survey Study

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00023752%3A_____%2F22%3A43920903" target="_blank" >RIV/00023752:_____/22:43920903 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00216208:11110/22:10444008 RIV/00216208:11120/22:43923581 RIV/00216224:14210/22:00126951

Result on the web

<a href="https://mental.jmir.org/2022/6/e36050" target="_blank" >https://mental.jmir.org/2022/6/e36050</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/36050" target="_blank" >10.2196/36050</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Impact of a Long Lockdown on Mental Health and the Role of Media Use: Web-Based Survey Study

Original language description

Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Czech population experienced a second lockdown lasting for about half a year, restricting free movement and imposing social isolation. However, it is not known whether the impact of this long lockdown resulted in habituation to the adverse situation or in the traumatization of the Czech population, and whether the media and specific media use contributed to these effects. O bjective: The aim of this study was to elucidate the effect of the long lockdown on the mental health of the Czech population, and the role of exposure to COVID-19 news reports and specific forms of media news use in mental health. Methods: We conducted two consecutive surveys in the early (November 2020) and late (March/April 2021) phases of the nationwide lockdown on the same nationally representative group of Czech adults (N=1777) participating in a longitudinal panel study. Results: Our findings showed that the self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression increased in the second observation period, confirming the negative effect of the pandemic lockdown as it unfolded, suggesting that restrictive measures and continuous exposure to a collective stressor did not result in the strengthening of resilience but rather in ongoing traumatization. The results also suggest a negative role of the media&apos;s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in mental health during the early, and particularly late, phases of the lockdown. Furthermore, we found several risk and protective factors of specific media news use. The media practice in news consumption connected to social media use was the strongest predictor of exacerbated mental health symptoms, particularly in the late phase of the lockdown. Moreover, news media use characterized by internalization of information learned from the news, as well as negative attitudes toward media news, were associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression. Conversely, the use of infotainment, together with an in-depth and contextual style of reading news articles, were related to improvement of mental health. Conclusions: Our study showed that the long lockdown resulted in traumatization rather than habituation, and in more pronounced effects (both negative and positive) of media use in mental health.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

30215 - Psychiatry

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA20-13458S" target="_blank" >GA20-13458S: Impact of media news on mental health: cognitive and neural mechanisms</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2022

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

JMIR Mental Health

ISSN

2368-7959

e-ISSN

2368-7959

Volume of the periodical

9

Issue of the periodical within the volume

6

Country of publishing house

CA - CANADA

Number of pages

14

Pages from-to

"Article Numbere: 36050"

UT code for WoS article

000822081300001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85134480387