Psychology

Mental well-being has declined during the Covid-19 pandemic in several developed countries, and particularly in the UK. Given the resurgence of the disease in western Europe during autumn 2020 and concurrently increasing restrictions, we investigate the possible effect on well-being of a winter lockdown. Using local variation during the spring lockdown in the UK, we found little effect of weather (temperature and rainfall) on well-being. This finding is despite a strong effect of weather on mobility in parks during the same period. Together, our results suggest a limited role for recreational mobility in maintaining well-being during this period. Our evidence suggests that winter weather wil..

We examine self-reported productivity of home workers during lockdown using survey data from the UK. On average, workers report being as productive as at the beginning of the year, before the pandemic. However, this average masks substantial differences across sectors, by working from home intensities, and by worker characteristics. Workers in industries and occupations characterized as being suitable for home work according to objective measures report higher productivity on average. Workers who have increased their intensity of working from home substantially report productivity increases, while those who previously always worked from home report productivity declines. Notable groups suffe..

There has been substantial attention paid to the differential effects of the current pandemic across ethnic group. In particular, a number of studies and reports have highlighted excess mortality of certain groups, and increasing attention is also being paid to the economic impacts.At the same time there is a lot we do not know about the context and drivers of differences.We use the specific features of Understanding Society, including its longitudinal design and ethnic and immigrant oversamples, and the available measures collected in the three Understanding Society COVID-19 monthly surveys currently released (covering April, May and June) to enhance understanding of the extent to which hou..

The Understanding Society COVID-19 study is a regular survey on the experiences and reactions of the UK population to the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey is an integral part of Understanding Society and researchers can link data from the COVID-19 survey to answers respondents have given in previous and future waves of the annual Understanding Society survey.The survey is funded by the ESRC and the Health Foundation. This briefing covers the questions on parent and child relationships in Wave 2 of the survey. The questions cover parents relationships with children and whether they have become better or worse since the government's 'stay at home' policy; whether parents quarrel, talk with their ..

The Understanding Society COVID-19 study is a regular survey on the experience and reactions of the UK population to the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey is an integral part of Understanding Society and researchers can link the data from the COVID-19 survey to answers respondents have given in previous (and future) waves of the annual Understanding Society survey. The survey is funded by the ESRC and the Health Foundation.This briefing note covers five broad topics: the experience of COVID-19 symptoms, testing and hospitalisation, use of health services for long-term health conditions, mental health and loneliness, health behaviours, and the receipt and giving of care.

We document a decline in mental well-being after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK. This decline is twice as large for women as for men. We seek to explain this gender gap by exploring gender differences in: family and caring responsibilities; financial and work situation; social engagement; health situation, and health behaviours, including exercise. Differences in family and caring responsibilities play some role, but the bulk of the gap is explained by social factors. Women reported more close friends before the pandemic than men, and increased loneliness after the pandemic's onset. Other factors are similarly distributed across genders and so play little role. Finally, we docu..

We use data from Wave 9 of UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) and the April 2020 Wave of the UKHLS COVID-19 survey to compare measures of ex ante inequality of opportunity (IOp) in psychological distress, as measured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), before (Wave 9) and at the initial peak (April 2020) of the pandemic. Based on a Caseness measure, the prevalence of psychological distress increases from 18.3% to 28.3% between Wave 9 and April 2020. Also, there is a systematic increase in total inequality in the Likert GHQ-12 score. However, measures of IOp have not increased. Specifically, the proportion of total inequality attributed to circumstances has declined, consistent wi..

We use data from Wave 9 of UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) and the April 2020 Wave of the UKHLS COVID-19 survey to compare measures of ex ante inequality of opportunity (IOp) in psychological distress, as measured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), before (Wave 9) and at the initial peak (April 2020) of the pandemic. Based on a Caseness measure, the prevalence of psychological distress increases from 18.3% to 28.3% between Wave 9 and April 2020. Also, there is a systematic increase in total inequality in the Likert GHQ-12 score. However, measures of IOp have not increased. Specifically, the proportion of total inequality attributed to circumstances has declined, consistent wi..

We use data from Wave 9 of UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) and the April 2020 Wave of the UKHLS COVID-19 survey to compare measures of ex ante inequality of opportunity (IOp) in psychological distress, as measured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), before (Wave 9) and at the initial peak (April 2020) of the pandemic. Based on a Caseness measure, the prevalence of psychological distress increases from 18.3% to 28.3% between Wave 9 and April 2020. Also, there is a systematic increase in total inequality in the Likert GHQ-12 score. However, measures of IOp have not increased. Specifically, the proportion of total inequality attributed to circumstances has declined, consistent wi..

ISER commissioned Kantar to conduct cognitive testing followed by a short qualitative discussion to support the development of the retirement planning module. The cognitive testing explored how participants understood and interpreted questions in the module to identify any barriers to responding and potential areas for improvement. The qualitative discussion captured broader views on and experiences of planning for retirement. The idealised version of retirement evoked ideas of personal and financial freedom, which did not align to participants' expectations of the own retirement.