Psychological, Spiritual and Emotional Response to COVID-19 Pandemic Experiences and Interventions Made

Abstract

Summary: Outbreak of Corona Virus in December 2019, in Wuhan placed a novel challenge in front of mankind. COVID-19 has affected every country in different magnitudes. The absence of vaccine and changed lifestyle suddenly imposed upon masses affected their functioning as well. Those victimized by the virus have their own problems while others also have had their own sufferings.

Objectives: Amidst all trials and tests for cure, this paper is an attempt to understand the psychological, spiritual and emotional response to COVID-19 and Government Interventions in India. It also tries to assess the differences in experiences across age, gender and educational qualifications.

Design: The study adopts a mixed approach and is an exploratory cross-sectional study. For the purpose of the study, shortened version of Czech SWSB, RYFF’s Psychological Wellbeing 18 point scale and STAI scale were customized for pandemic times, administered towards the end of Lockdown 1.0 in India. After reliability and validity tests, established scales are used to study the variable in the research. For the analysis of data Smart PLS SEM 3.3.2 is used.

Setting: General masses of India were a part of the study. A cohort of 100 respondents willing to participate in the survey during the initial 21 days lockdown in India was studied which was selected using snowball sampling.

Main outcome measures: The study measures the association of psychological, spiritual and emotional response to covid-19 pandemic experiences and also the response to interventions made.

Findings: The results show that there is trivial relation of age, education and gender to the experiences of COVID-19. It was also found that Psychological Wellbeing and Spiritual Wellbeing were significantly related to the experiences of COVID-19.

Conclusion: Extreme external factors like covid-19 pandemic act as stressors and affect the psychological and spiritual wellbeing of all.