scholarly journals #lockdown: Network-Enhanced Emotional Profiling in the Time of COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Stella ◽  
Valerio Restocchi ◽  
Simon De Deyne
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Discourse ◽  
Unexpected Events ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Psychological Burden ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Mental Well Being ◽  
Cognitive Data

The COVID-19 pandemic forced countries all over the world to take unprecedented measures, like nationwide lockdowns. To adequately understand the emotional and social repercussions, a large-scale reconstruction of how people perceived these unexpected events is necessary but currently missing. We address this gap through social media by introducing MERCURIAL (Multi-layer Co-occurrence Networks for Emotional Profiling), a framework which exploits linguistic networks of words and hashtags to reconstruct social discourse describing real-world events. We use MERCURIAL to analyse 101,767 tweets from Italy, the first country to react to the COVID-19 threat with a nationwide lockdown. The data were collected between the 11th and 17th March, immediately after the announcement of the Italian lockdown and the WHO declaring COVID-19 a pandemic. Our analysis provides unique insights into the psychological burden of this crisis, focussing on—(i) the Italian official campaign for self-quarantine (#iorestoacasa), (ii) national lockdown (#italylockdown), and (iii) social denounce (#sciacalli). Our exploration unveils the emergence of complex emotional profiles, where anger and fear (towards political debates and socio-economic repercussions) coexisted with trust, solidarity, and hope (related to the institutions and local communities). We discuss our findings in relation to mental well-being issues and coping mechanisms, like instigation to violence, grieving, and solidarity. We argue that our framework represents an innovative thermometer of emotional status, a powerful tool for policy makers to quickly gauge feelings in massive audiences and devise appropriate responses based on cognitive data.

scholarly journals Perceptions of an Insufficient Government Response at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic are Associated with Lower Mental Well-Being

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiemo Fetzer ◽  
Marc Witte ◽  
Lukas Hensel ◽  
Jon Jachimowicz ◽  
Johannes Haushofer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Variation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Government Response ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The World ◽  
Large Scale Survey ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Mental Well Being

We conducted a large-scale survey covering 58 countries (N = 108,075) at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic—between March 20th and April 7th 2020—to explore how beliefs about citizens’ and government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the actions taken by governments, affected mental well-being. Our analyses reveal three findings. First, many respondents indicate that their country’s citizens and government’s response was insufficient. Second, respondents’ perception of an insufficient public and government response was associated with lower mental well-being. Third, we exploit time variation in country-level lockdown announcements, both around the world and through an event-study in the UK, and find that strong government actions—i.e., announcing a nationwide lockdown—were related to an improvement in respondents’ views of their fellow citizens and government, and to better mental well-being. These findings suggest that policy-makers may not only need to consider how their decisions affect the spread of COVID-19, but also how such choices influence the mental well-being of their population.

scholarly journals Caregiver burden and coping strategies in caregivers of older patients with stroke

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Azar Kazemi ◽  
Jalil Azimian ◽  
Maryam Mafi ◽  
Kelly-Ann Allen ◽  
Seyedeh Ameneh Motalebi
Keyword(s):  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Caregiver Burden ◽  
Older Patients ◽  
Coping Skills ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Positive Reappraisal ◽  
Burden Of Care ◽  
Stroke Patients ◽  
Psychological Burden ◽  
And Coping

Abstract Background Coping strategies play a key role in modulating the physical and psychological burden on caregivers of stroke patients. The present study aimed to determine the relationship between the severity of burden of care and coping strategies amongst a sample of Iranian caregivers of older stroke patients. It also aimed to examine the differences of coping strategies used by male and female caregivers. Methods A total of 110 caregivers of older patients who previously had a stroke participated in this descriptive and cross-sectional study. The Zarit Burden Interview and Lazarus coping strategies questionnaires were used for data collection. Questionnaires were completed by the caregivers, who were selected using convenience sampling. The collected data were analyzed using Pearson's correlations and independent t-tests. Results The mean age of participants was 32.09 ± 8.70 years. The majority of the caregivers sampled reported mild to moderate (n = 74, 67.3%) burden. The most commonly used coping strategies reported were positive reappraisal and seeking social support. Results of the independent t-test showed that male caregivers used the positive reappraisal strategy (t(110) = 2.76; p = 0.007) and accepting responsibility (t(110) = 2.26; p = 0.026) significantly more than female caregivers. Pearson’s correlations showed a significant positive correlation between caregiver burden and emotional-focused strategies, including escaping (r = 0.245, p = 0.010) and distancing (r = 0.204, p = 0.032). Conclusions Caregivers with higher burden of care used more negative coping strategies, such as escape-avoidance and distancing. In order to encourage caregivers to utilize effective coping skills, appropriate programs should be designed and implemented to support caregivers. Use of effective coping skills to reduce the level of personal burden can improve caregiver physical health and psychological well-being.

scholarly journals Silver Linings Reported by Australians Experiencing Public Health Restrictions during the First Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Report

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (21) ◽  
pp. 11406
Author(s):  
Narelle Campbell ◽  
Sandra C. Thompson ◽  
Anna Tynan ◽  
Louise Townsin ◽  
Lauren A. Booker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Rapid Identification ◽  
National Study ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Mental Well Being

This national study investigated the positives reported by residents experiencing the large-scale public health measures instituted in Australia to manage the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Most Australians had not previously experienced the traditional public health measures used (social distancing, hand hygiene and restriction of movement) and which could potentially impact negatively on mental well-being. The research design included qualitative semi-structured phone interviews where participants described their early pandemic experiences. Data analysis used a rapid identification of themes technique, well-suited to large-scale qualitative research. The ninety participants (mean age 48 years; 70 women) were distributed nationally. Analysis revealed five themes linked with mental well-being and the concept of silver linings: safety and security, gratitude and appreciation, social cohesion and connections, and opportunities to reset priorities and resilience. Participants demonstrated support for the public health measures and evidence of individual and community resilience. They were cognisant of positives despite personal curtailment and negative impacts of public health directives. Stories of hope, strength, and acceptance, innovative connections with others and focusing on priorities and opportunities within the hardship were important strategies that others could use in managing adversity.

scholarly journals YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-74
Author(s):  
Oxana Martirosyan ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Quality Education ◽  
International Labour Organization ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Youth Labor Market ◽  
The World ◽  
Long Term Consequences ◽  
Mental Well Being

The economic crisis caused by the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to serious long-term consequences for young people around the world, primarily because States have suspended funding for education and a large number of youth projects, and many children and adolescents have not been able to implement their plans for quality education and decent work. The international labour organization conducted a large-scale study on “Youth and COVID-19: impact on jobs, education, rights and mental well-being”, covering 112 countries and 120 thousand respondents. The article presents some results of this study, reflecting the situation in the youth labor market.

scholarly journals Tracking WhatsApp behaviors during a crisis: A longitudinal observation of messaging activities during the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edina YQ Tan ◽  
Russell RE Wee ◽  
Young Ern Saw ◽  
Kylie JQ Heng ◽  
Joseph WE Chin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Communication ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Longitudinal Observation ◽  
Usage Patterns

During a crisis, the messaging platform WhatsApp allows crisis-related information to be disseminated quickly. Although case studies have documented how WhatsApp has shaped crisis outcomes in both beneficial and harmful ways, little is known about: (i) how crisis-related content is spread; (ii) characteristics of users based on usage patterns; or (iii) how usage patterns link to well-being. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis, this study used the experience sampling method to track the daily WhatsApp usage of 151 adults throughout one week (capturing a total of 924 days of crisis-related communication). Each day, participants reported the extent to which they had received, forwarded, or discussed COVID-19- related content. During the week-long monitoring, most participants (94.7%) reported at least one COVID-19 related use of WhatsApp. Those who engaged with more COVID-19 content in personal chats were more likely to report having COVID-19 thoughts throughout the day. We further observed that around 1 in 10 individuals (14%) were chronic users who received and shared forwarded COVID-19 messages at a high volume; this group may represent everyday "super spreaders" of crisis-related content. Together, these findings provide an empirical base for policy makers to manage risk communication during large-scale crises.

International comparative study on health condition of young people

2014 ◽  
Vol 155 (34) ◽  
pp. 1353-1360
Author(s):  
Brigitta Munkácsi ◽  
Beáta Erika Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Young People ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Physical Condition ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Strategy Development ◽  
Public Health Programme ◽  
International Comparative ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Mental Well Being

Introduction: The connection between physical condition, coping strategies and emotional intelligence is widely studied in the international literature, but comparative research data collected among Transylvanian and Hungarian adolescents are not available in contemporary psychological literature. Aim: The aim of the authors was to study health indicators, emotional intelligence and coping strategies among adolescents and analyse connections between these factors and physical condition as part of an international research. Method: The physical condition, coping strategies and emotional intelligence of 390 individuals, aged between 13 and 19 years living in Debrecen (Hungary) and Érmihályfalva (Romania) were observed. Results: adaptive (i. e. problem-focused) coping strategies used in stressful situations resulted in lower depression rates, as well as better mental well-being than the maladaptive ones such as emotional clearing, self-punishment, distraction of attention. Adolescents showing higher emotional intelligence had lower depression levels and better mental well-being. Conclusions: Institutionally initiated emotional intelligence and coping strategy development for young people may prove to be an important preventive interventional public health programme. This may serve as a basis to assist health-consciousness and personality formatting. Orv. Hetil., 2014, 155(34), 1353–1360.

Deinstitutionalisation and the Best Interest of the Child: The Case of Rwanda and Lessons for South Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-158
Author(s):  
Shubha Murthi ◽  
Chathuri Jayasooriya
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Residential Care ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
National Guidelines ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Alternative Care ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Family Based

The ‘deinstitutionalisation’ (DI) movement, also known as ‘care reforms’, is spreading rapidly across the globe, gaining momentum with the growing understanding among both practitioners and policy makers of the harmful effects of institutionalisation on the development and well-being of children as well as the strengthening of the child rights discourse. This has led to a growing international trend towards the development of, and a strong belief in, family-based care options for children deprived of parental care, away from large-scale institutions. This trend is reflected in and supported by international frameworks guiding the care of children, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and in particular the United National Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children, which was hailed in 2009. These instruments recognise that a caring and protective family is central to a child’s development, that governments should fulfil children’s right to quality care in families of origin and in alternative care and that institutionalisation of a child should be discouraged. DI processes are, however, not simple and straightforward as there are many challenges and complexities in their cross-cultural implementation. Even though unequivocally agreed by all stakeholders that the ‘best interest of the child’ should be at the heart of such care reform processes, its actual practice can often contradict such understandings as it gets submerged in numerous other considerations, constraints and challenges. This article analyses some of the dominant DI trends prevailing at present, in particular the primacy of family-based care and the misconceptions associated with the suitability of residential care, illustrated by the experience of SOS Children’s Villages in the DI process and its outcomes in Rwanda. The analysis is premised on the framework of the UN guidelines for the alternative care of children and strives to understand whether DI as it is practiced in Rwanda is aligned with the principles of ‘necessity’, ‘suitability’ and the ‘best interest of the child’ as stipulated in the Guidelines. The attempt is to draw lessons for South Asia from the success as well as the challenges faced in Rwanda, as many governments in South Asia progressively join the DI movement. It is critical for all child-focused international non-governmental organization/ non-governmental organizations (INGOs/NGOs) in Asia to understand the UNGL, learn from different experiences about the challenges of DI and prepare to engage with policy makers. One of the most important lessons from the Rwanda experience is that the ‘quality’ of care should take precedence over the ‘form’ of care, and that quality is not always guaranteed in family-based care. The shift in the positionality of the government of Rwanda and their willingness to rethink their approach to DI particularly in terms of recognising quality residential care is commendable. This needs to be taken as a precedence by other governments across the world including in South Asia—especially by those who are truly interested in ensuring the best interest of children who have lost the care of their parents.

scholarly journals Estimating geographic subjective well-being from Twitter: A comparison of dictionary and data-driven language methods

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (19) ◽  
pp. 10165-10171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kokil Jaidka ◽  
Salvatore Giorgi ◽  
H. Andrew Schwartz ◽  
Margaret L. Kern ◽  
Lyle H. Ungar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Systematic Evaluation ◽  
County Level ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Regional Effects ◽  
Word Level

Researchers and policy makers worldwide are interested in measuring the subjective well-being of populations. When users post on social media, they leave behind digital traces that reflect their thoughts and feelings. Aggregation of such digital traces may make it possible to monitor well-being at large scale. However, social media-based methods need to be robust to regional effects if they are to produce reliable estimates. Using a sample of 1.53 billion geotagged English tweets, we provide a systematic evaluation of word-level and data-driven methods for text analysis for generating well-being estimates for 1,208 US counties. We compared Twitter-based county-level estimates with well-being measurements provided by the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index survey through 1.73 million phone surveys. We find that word-level methods (e.g., Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count [LIWC] 2015 and Language Assessment by Mechanical Turk [LabMT]) yielded inconsistent county-level well-being measurements due to regional, cultural, and socioeconomic differences in language use. However, removing as few as three of the most frequent words led to notable improvements in well-being prediction. Data-driven methods provided robust estimates, approximating the Gallup data at up to r = 0.64. We show that the findings generalized to county socioeconomic and health outcomes and were robust when poststratifying the samples to be more representative of the general US population. Regional well-being estimation from social media data seems to be robust when supervised data-driven methods are used.

I’ve 500 friends, but who are my mates? Investigating the influence of online friend networks on adolescent wellbeing

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 135-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Best ◽  
Brian Taylor ◽  
Roger Manktelow
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Young Males ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Mental Well Being ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Influence Perceptions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between online friend networks and the mental well-being (MWB) of adolescent males. Design/methodology/approach – The study used a mixed methods approach: first, questionnaire involving a validated MWB scale and questions regarding online friendship to 14-15 year old males (n=521); and second, focus group interviews (n=8) of between six and eight members three months later. Findings – Positive and negative associations were recorded between online friends and well-being. A positive relationship (p < 0.05) was found between the number of online friends and well-being scores. However, higher numbers of online friends were also associated with increases in negative online experiences namely, receiving embarrassing posts online or risky activities such as, chatting frequently with strangers. Online friends may influence perceptions of social support, status and belonging, each of which may contribute positively or negatively to well-being. However, by increasing these perceptions, online friends may cause additional distress when their presence does not provide tangible support during a crisis period. Originality/value – Online friends provide the context to which young males explore and negotiate the online world. To date, little mixed methods research has focused exclusively on the MWB of online friends. Policy makers could do well to consider the growing prominence of online social networking and produce targeted programmes to educate young people on the benefits and pitfalls of building large online “friend” networks.

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