Forced social isolation and lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic: depression, anxiety, trauma-distress and coping mechanisms of a Greek sample

Athanasia Liozidou; Vasiliki Varela; Dimitris D Vlastos; Erasmia Giogkaraki; Elisabet Alzueta; Paul B Perrin; Daniela Ramos-Usuga; Juan Carlos Arango-Lasprilla

doi:10.1007/s10389-023-01907-3

Forced social isolation and lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic: depression, anxiety, trauma-distress and coping mechanisms of a Greek sample

Z Gesundh Wiss. 2023 Apr 13:1-10. doi: 10.1007/s10389-023-01907-3. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Athanasia Liozidou^{1

2

3}, Vasiliki Varela^{1

3

4}, Dimitris D Vlastos^{1

3

5}, Erasmia Giogkaraki^{1

3}, Elisabet Alzueta⁶, Paul B Perrin⁷, Daniela Ramos-Usuga⁸, Juan Carlos Arango-Lasprilla⁹

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Clinical Neuropsychology, SCG - Scientific College of Greece, Athens, Greece.
² Neuropsychology Department, 1st & 2nd Neurology Clinic, Henry Dunant Hospital Center, Athens, Greece.
³ Department of Psychology, SCG - Scientific College of Greece in Collaboration with the University of Strasbourg, Athens, Greece.
⁴ 1st Department of Psychiatry, Eginition Hospital, Medical School National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
⁵ Laboratory of Experimental and Applied Psychology, SCG - Scientific College of Greece, Athens, Greece.
⁶ Center for Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA USA.
⁷ Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA USA.
⁸ Biomedical Research Doctorate Program, University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Spain.
⁹ Giunti Psychometrics, Madrid, Spain.

Abstract

Aim: The COVID-19 outbreak escalated into a global pandemic, pushing many governments around the world to impose measures affecting all aspects of life. Similar to other countries, Greece adopted social restriction, lockdowns, and quarantines to reduce transmission from person-to-person. This cross-sectional study investigated the association between social restriction measures, an mental health and coping strategies employed by a Greek adult sample.

Subject and methods: An online questionnaire was used to collect data during the second national lockdown (February to May 2021). A total of 650 participants (M age 33.13, 71.5% female) comprised the final sample.

Results: The results show 21.3% of respondents reported moderate-to-extremely severe anxiety, 33% moderate-to-extremely severe depression, 31.8% moderate-to-severe stress, and 38% clinically significant trauma-related distress. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed that the strongest contributors to adverse mental health outcomes were being female, of younger age, experiencing increases in verbal arguments at home, being separated from family and close friends, and being unable to afford enough or healthy food. Lastly, participants reported moving away from social support and into more individual strength and resilience-based coping strategies to cope with challenges.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that in addition to the detrimental effects on physical health, social restriction measures related to COVID-19 also imposed a heavy psychological burden on the population via forced social isolation, which, by design, increased not only physical distancing but also psychological distancing between people.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10389-023-01907-3.

Keywords: COVID-19 social distancing; Anxiety; Coping; Depression; Greece; Stress; Trauma.

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