TY - JOUR

T1 - Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic Nationwide Lockdown on Mental Health, Environmental Concern, and Prejudice Against Other Social Groups

AU - Schiller, Bastian

AU - Tönsing, Daniel

AU - Kleinert, Tobias

AU - Böhm, Robert

AU - Heinrichs, Markus

N1 - Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by a research fellowship for “Leading Early Career Researchers” awarded to Bastian Schiller by the Baden-Wuerttemberg Foundation “Situational and individual determinants of behavior toward refugees: A bio-psychological investigation.” Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2021.

PY - 2022/2

Y1 - 2022/2

N2 - The COVID-19 pandemic has hit humanity globally. Besides its obvious threats to our physical health and economic stability, one can only speculate about the pandemic’s and its countermeasures’ psychosocial impacts. Here, we took advantage of a sample of healthy male participants who had completed psychosocial measures on mental health, environmental concern, and prejudice against asylum-seekers just before and during the nationwide lockdown in Germany in spring 2020. A follow-up assessment of 140 participants during the lockdown provided a unique opportunity to track psychosocial changes in a prospective longitudinal study design. In comparison to before the lockdown (1) mental health worsened, (2) environmental concern increased, and (3) prejudice against asylum-seekers decreased. Our study demonstrates psychosocial “side effects” of the pandemic that bring both challenges and opportunities for our society with regard to the handling of psychological reactions to this pandemic and further global crises, including climate change and mass migration.

AB - The COVID-19 pandemic has hit humanity globally. Besides its obvious threats to our physical health and economic stability, one can only speculate about the pandemic’s and its countermeasures’ psychosocial impacts. Here, we took advantage of a sample of healthy male participants who had completed psychosocial measures on mental health, environmental concern, and prejudice against asylum-seekers just before and during the nationwide lockdown in Germany in spring 2020. A follow-up assessment of 140 participants during the lockdown provided a unique opportunity to track psychosocial changes in a prospective longitudinal study design. In comparison to before the lockdown (1) mental health worsened, (2) environmental concern increased, and (3) prejudice against asylum-seekers decreased. Our study demonstrates psychosocial “side effects” of the pandemic that bring both challenges and opportunities for our society with regard to the handling of psychological reactions to this pandemic and further global crises, including climate change and mass migration.

KW - COVID-19 pandemic

KW - environmental concern

KW - mental health

KW - out-group prejudice

KW - social behavior

U2 - 10.1177/00139165211036991

DO - 10.1177/00139165211036991

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85112460521

VL - 54

SP - 516

EP - 537

JO - Environment and Behavior

JF - Environment and Behavior

SN - 0013-9165

IS - 2

ER -