A group of researchers at the University of California, Davis have released their findings on how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the everyday lives of Americans.
The new research, published in the journal Sustainability, aimed at identifying predictors of resilience against COVID-19.
“This study uses a cross-sectional design, with purposive snowball sampling, for primary survey data collected over 10 weeks starting the first week in April 2020,” the co-authors stated in their findings.
The study was conducted during the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with researchers instructing more than 350 participants to complete a questionnaire on demographics and behavioral factors.
Utilizing the 10-item Connor Davidson Resilience Scale and the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale, researchers were able to assess resilience and perceived stress. For each participant, the questionnaire only lasted for a duration of 10 minutes.
“OLS regression was performed to determine key associations among demographic variables, resilience measures, and perceived stress brought on by COVID-19,” the co-authors explained in their findings. “Age and education were statistically significantly positively associated with resilience, while English as a second language was significantly negatively associated.”
The results of the study demonstrated that nearly one month into the pandemic, about two-thirds of the participants reported moderate to high levels of stress.
“Participants who reported needing help from family and neighbors, total number of days in lockdown, and higher perceived stress were all significantly negatively associated with resilience,” the findings concluded.
“This study adds to immediate predictors of individual resilience to the ongoing infectious disease catastrophe created by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
