The Impact of Resilience and Extraversion on Psychological Distress, Loneliness, and Boredom During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Follow-Up Study Among the General Population of Tyrol, Austria

Abstract

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic and related measures represent an enormous burden on mental health. The aim of this study was to investigate longitudinal changes in psychological distress, loneliness, boredom, and resilience over the course of the pandemic and to examine the associations between resilience and extraversion at baseline (summer 2020) and psychological distress, loneliness, and boredom at 5-month-follow-up.Methods: Residents of Tyrol (≥18a) completed an online survey on psychological distress, loneliness, boredom, resilience, and extraversion by using the Brief-Symptom-Checklist, the Three-Item Loneliness Scale, the Multidimensional State Boredom Scale-Short Form (MSBS-SF), the Resilience Scale, and the Extraversion subscale of the Big Five Inventory.Results: Of the 961 baseline participants, 384 took part in the follow-up survey. The percentage of study participants with striking psychological distress remained the same. Similarly, resilience did not change from baseline to follow-up, whereas the number of those experiencing moderate loneliness increased significantly. In contrast, at follow-up, severe loneliness was detected in significantly less people. Boredom decreased significantly over time. A moderate negative association was detected between baseline resilience and psychological distress, loneliness, and boredom at follow-up, and a weak but still significant negative association between extraversion and these outcomes.Discussion: These findings indicate that a subset of the general population consistently suffers from high levels of psychological distress and point to the protective effects of resilience and extraversion in this context. They reemphasize the importance of prevention and mitigation strategies to address these public health problems.

Long-term impact of resilience and extraversion on psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal investigation among individuals with and without mental health disorders

“…Extraversion, for example, characterizes outgoing and optimistic individuals who tend to utilize social support more often ( 22 ) and has been associated with positive emotions ( 23 ), higher life satisfaction ( 24 ) and well-being ( 25 , 26 ), less stressor-related negative affect ( 27 ), as well as with recovery ( 28 ) and growth following trauma ( 29 ). Based on this, some studies hypothesized that extraversion could positively impact psychological distress levels ( 30 – 34 ). Numerous studies conducted before and after the onset of the pandemic have shown that women tend to experience more psychological distress ( 35 – 40 ) and to have greater fears and negative expectations about the health consequences of COVID-19 compared to men ( 41 ).…”

How Mental Health and Suicidality Changed during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study in the General and Psychiatric Population Illustrating Risk and Protective Factors

“…Resilience has been widely considered a protective factor for adverse health problems [21], and its role has been extensively investigated during the COVID-19 pandemic [22][23][24][25][26][27] For example, a longitudinal study found stability in resilience levels over the pandemic in the general population [22] Other autors [28] even found an increase in resilience in people with chronic illnesses. Resilience has also been shown to be a protective factor for negative health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic [21,29] An Important protective factor associated with higher resilience to stress in times of difficulty is spirituality [30][31][32] Moreover, a decrease in spirituality during the pandemic in a German sample has been reported [33] along withimportant differences in its trends according to the levels of personal spirituality before the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic.…”

Pre-pandemic Psychobiological Features Predict Impact of COVID-19 Confinement on Loneliness

“…Concerning extraversion and loneliness during the COVID-19 lockdown, the literature has yielded mixed effects. Some studies indicated that extraversion is a protective factor against loneliness ( Tutzer et al, 2021 ) while others reported that extroverts are not so likely to engage with social distancing and confinement measures ( Carvalho et al, 2020 ), probably because they seek social proximity. Accordingly, it would be reasonable to examine if the relationship between AUC G and social loneliness differs when extraversion varies between individuals ( Figure 1 ).…”