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What Makes People Happy During Coronavirus Pandemic, Study Examines
“Approaches that boost sense of control can attenuate the detrimental effect of an outbreak on happiness,” researchers say.
“How an Epidemic Outbreak Impacts Happiness: Factors that Worsen (vs. Protect) Emotional Well-being during the Coronavirus Pandemic,” is a paper recently published in Psychiatry Research. Haiyang Yang, Ph.D. in marketing at John Hopkins University, and Jijing Ma, assistant professor of marketing at Peking University, wanted to understand how people in China are coping mentally with the current pandemic.
What Did They Do?
They collected two survey data representative of China. The first one, involving 11,131 people, was conducted before the coronavirus outbreak was publically reported at the end of December. The second one has 3,000 people and was administered around mid-February.
The surveys measure emotional well-being. “Specifically, they indicated whether they smiled or laughed a lot yesterday, and whether they experienced a lot of enjoyment, happiness, anger, sadness, stress, or worry yesterday,” Dr. Yang and Professor Ma wrote. Demographics like age, sex, income, region, and marital status were also included.
