Exploring the Longitudinal Relationship Between Lockdown Policy Stringency and Public Negative Emotions Among 120 Countries During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Role of Population Mobility
BackgroundTo limit the spread of COVID-19, governments worldwide have implemented a series of lockdown policies to restrict the social activities of people. Although scholars suggest that such policies may produce negative effects on public emotions, the existing research is limited because it only...
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| Format: | Article |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.753703/full |
| _version_ | 1818201404093759488 |
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| author | Weigang Gong Guodong Ju Meng Zhu Senhu Wang Wei Guo Wei Guo Yunsong Chen |
| author_facet | Weigang Gong Guodong Ju Meng Zhu Senhu Wang Wei Guo Wei Guo Yunsong Chen |
| author_sort | Weigang Gong |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | BackgroundTo limit the spread of COVID-19, governments worldwide have implemented a series of lockdown policies to restrict the social activities of people. Although scholars suggest that such policies may produce negative effects on public emotions, the existing research is limited because it only provides a cross-sectional snapshot of the effect of lockdown policies in small and local samples. Using large-scale longitudinal cross-country data, the current study aims to gain a better understanding of the dynamic effect of lockdown policies on public emotions and their underlying mechanisms.MethodsDrawing on a large-scale longitudinal data from multiple sources, the study employs fixed-effects models to analyze the association between lagged lockdown policy stringency and public negative emotions among 120 countries from February to July 2020 (N = 9,141 country-day observations). The bootstrapping mediation test is used to examine the mediation effects of increased population mobility in residential areas.ResultsThe results show a statistically significant and positive association between lagged lockdown policy stringency and general public negative emotion (standardized coefficient = 0.32, CI = 0.30–0.35, p < 0.001). This pattern remains similar to other specific negative emotions, such as depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and helplessness. Moreover, the negative health effects of lockdown policy stringency are significantly mediated by increased mobility in residential areas (51–74% points, p < 0.001).ConclusionThe findings confirm that stringent lockdown policies have a negative effect on public emotions via confining population mobility residential areas. To tackle the COVID-19, future public health policies should pay more attention to the unintended negative consequences of lockdown measures on public emotions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T02:53:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-235066db1e95423bb03d742473bc7a80 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-0640 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T02:53:01Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychiatry |
| spelling | doaj.art-235066db1e95423bb03d742473bc7a802022-12-22T00:40:50ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychiatry1664-06402022-05-011310.3389/fpsyt.2022.753703753703Exploring the Longitudinal Relationship Between Lockdown Policy Stringency and Public Negative Emotions Among 120 Countries During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Role of Population MobilityWeigang Gong0Guodong Ju1Meng Zhu2Senhu Wang3Wei Guo4Wei Guo5Yunsong Chen6Department of Sociology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, ChinaDepartment of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United KingdomThe Institute for Advanced Studies in Finance and Economics, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan, ChinaDepartment of Sociology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, SingaporeSchool of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, ChinaThe Centre for Asia-Pacific Development Studies, Nanjing University, Nanjing, ChinaSchool of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, ChinaBackgroundTo limit the spread of COVID-19, governments worldwide have implemented a series of lockdown policies to restrict the social activities of people. Although scholars suggest that such policies may produce negative effects on public emotions, the existing research is limited because it only provides a cross-sectional snapshot of the effect of lockdown policies in small and local samples. Using large-scale longitudinal cross-country data, the current study aims to gain a better understanding of the dynamic effect of lockdown policies on public emotions and their underlying mechanisms.MethodsDrawing on a large-scale longitudinal data from multiple sources, the study employs fixed-effects models to analyze the association between lagged lockdown policy stringency and public negative emotions among 120 countries from February to July 2020 (N = 9,141 country-day observations). The bootstrapping mediation test is used to examine the mediation effects of increased population mobility in residential areas.ResultsThe results show a statistically significant and positive association between lagged lockdown policy stringency and general public negative emotion (standardized coefficient = 0.32, CI = 0.30–0.35, p < 0.001). This pattern remains similar to other specific negative emotions, such as depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and helplessness. Moreover, the negative health effects of lockdown policy stringency are significantly mediated by increased mobility in residential areas (51–74% points, p < 0.001).ConclusionThe findings confirm that stringent lockdown policies have a negative effect on public emotions via confining population mobility residential areas. To tackle the COVID-19, future public health policies should pay more attention to the unintended negative consequences of lockdown measures on public emotions.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.753703/fullCOVID-19lockdown policiespublic emotionspopulation mobilitypublic health policies |
| spellingShingle | Weigang Gong Guodong Ju Meng Zhu Senhu Wang Wei Guo Wei Guo Yunsong Chen Exploring the Longitudinal Relationship Between Lockdown Policy Stringency and Public Negative Emotions Among 120 Countries During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Role of Population Mobility Frontiers in Psychiatry COVID-19 lockdown policies public emotions population mobility public health policies |
| title | Exploring the Longitudinal Relationship Between Lockdown Policy Stringency and Public Negative Emotions Among 120 Countries During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Role of Population Mobility |
| title_full | Exploring the Longitudinal Relationship Between Lockdown Policy Stringency and Public Negative Emotions Among 120 Countries During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Role of Population Mobility |
| title_fullStr | Exploring the Longitudinal Relationship Between Lockdown Policy Stringency and Public Negative Emotions Among 120 Countries During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Role of Population Mobility |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring the Longitudinal Relationship Between Lockdown Policy Stringency and Public Negative Emotions Among 120 Countries During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Role of Population Mobility |
| title_short | Exploring the Longitudinal Relationship Between Lockdown Policy Stringency and Public Negative Emotions Among 120 Countries During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Role of Population Mobility |
| title_sort | exploring the longitudinal relationship between lockdown policy stringency and public negative emotions among 120 countries during the covid 19 pandemic mediating role of population mobility |
| topic | COVID-19 lockdown policies public emotions population mobility public health policies |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.753703/full |
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