Who Develops Pandemic Fatigue?

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization, pandemic fatigue poses a serious threat for managing COVID-19. The cardinal feature of pandemic fatigue is a progressive decline in adherence to social distancing (SDIS) guidelines, which is associated with pandemic-related emotional burnout. Little is known about the nature of pandemic fatigue; for example, it is unclear who is most likely to develop pandemic fatigue. We sought to evaluate this issue based on data from 5,812 American and Canadian adults recruited during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Past-year decline in adherence to SDIS had a categorical latent structure according to Latent Class Analysis, consisting of an SDIS adherent group (Class 1: 92% of the sample) and a group reporting a progressive decline in adherence to SDIS (i.e., pandemic fatigue; Class 2: 8% of the sample). Class 2, compared to Class 1, was associated with greater pandemic-related burnout, pessimism, and apathy about the COVID-19 pandemic. They also tended to be younger, perceived themselves to be more affluent, tended to have greater levels of narcissism, entitlement, and gregariousness, and were more likely to report having been previously infected with SARSCOV2, which they regarded as an exaggerated threat. People in Class 2 also self-reported higher levels of pandemic-related stress, anxiety, and depression, and described making active efforts at coping with SDIS restrictions that they perceived as unnecessary and stressful. People in Class 1 generally reported that they engaged in SDIS for the benefit of themselves and their community, although 35% of this class also feared they would be publicly shamed if they did not comply with SDIS guidelines. The findings suggest that pandemic fatigue affects a substantial minority of people and even many SDIS-adherent people experience emotionally adverse effects (i.e., fear of being shamed). Implications for the future of SDIS are discussed.

Fear and Trembling While Working in a Pandemic: an Exploratory Meta-Analysis of Workers’ COVID-19 Distress

“…Table 1, however, is not all-encompassing, and researchers and practitioners may want to consider newly emerging conceptualizations of pandemic-related distress. For example, given how long COVID-19 has lasted, OHP researchers and practitioners may be interested in assessing workers' pandemic fatigue and apathy (see, e.g., Lilleholt et al, 2022;Taylor et al, 2022). These manifestations of COVID-19 distress may have unique implications for occupational safety and disease spread in the workplace.…”

Pandemic fatigue fueled political discontent during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…One source of bias emerges from the possibility of confounding due to omitted variables (i.e., alternative explanations). Many of the relevant omitted variables are stable individual-level characteristics such as chronic mental challenges, general health concerns, general political trust, or a lack of socioeconomic opportunities ( 7 , 29 ). If such factors simultaneously exert independent impacts on pandemic fatigue and political discontent, then they create omitted variable bias in the estimates.…”

“…Finally, to assess the convergent validity of the present measure with other measures of pandemic fatigue, a separate study was conducted in Germany in March 2022 ( 40 ). In this study, we assessed pandemic fatigue using the present measure as well as a validated pandemic fatigue scale ( 7 ) and a validated scale for “COVID-19 burnout” ( 29 ). In support of the measure’s convergent validity, we found large correlations between our item and the pandemic fatigue scale (r = 0.48), and particularly with its behavioral fatigue subcomponent (r = 0.52), and a lower, albeit still sizable correlation with the COVID-19 burnout scale (r = 0.30) ( SI Appendix , section S1.5 ).…”

“…As further evidence, Ford and colleagues ( 28 ) used another scale of pandemic fatigue (modeled after a scale of harassment fatigue by Ford and Ivancic ( 17 )) to demonstrate that people who are higher in pandemic fatigue are motivated to avoid COVID-19-related information but nonetheless continue to seek it out. Finally, Taylor and colleagues ( 29 ) used another scale of pandemic burnout and found it to be related to pandemic-specific feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression as well as elevated fear of public shaming if they did not comply with pandemic policies. By more directly assessing pandemic fatigue, these studies provide prima facie evidence in favor of the existence of feelings of exhaustion and highlight the importance of conceptualizing pandemic fatigue as a reflection of the perceived costs of compliance rather than a change in objective behavior.…”

Resilience and Wellbeing Strategies for Pandemic Fatigue in Times of Covid-19

“…Research has indicated that COVID-19 pandemic has amplified stress of a significant proportion of population (Panchal et al, 2021;Prati & Mancini, 2021). Excessive stress can notably lead to burnout, a prominent factor in pandemic fatigue (Marčinko et al, 2020;Taylor et al, 2022;Yildirim & Solmaz, 2020). Burnout is a psychological construct defined by the experience of emotional exhaustion, reduced personal accomplishment/inefficacy, and depersonalization/cynicism (Maslach & Jackson, 1981;Maslach & Leiter, 2016).…”