Special series on COVID-19 and Mental Health

This miniseries on COVID-19 and Mental Health publishes 5 research articles and their related discussant comments, reporting on the data from the UCL-Penn Global COVID Study, Lessons from COVID-19: Reflections, Resilience and Recovery.

 

People’s wellbeing is intimately linked to their environment including the place in which they live. This series will build towards examining some of the linkages that have been exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and some of these findings will likely read across to the journals broader special series on COVID-19 interactions with our environment.

The UCL-Penn Global COVID Study launched in April 2020 is a 12-month longitudinal study of the impact of COVID-19 on social trust, mental health, and physical health. In collaboration with 6 institutions from Italy, Singapore, USA, China, and the UK,  the study looks at the short- and long-term effects of COVID-19 on individual’s mental health and social relationships with others.

Held online between the 2nd June and 28th July 2021, the study group ran five online webinars (one for each article) discussing the lessons learned and to speak on the policy relevance and implications of the study, with invited policy makers and other subject experts. The recorded comments from these discussions focusing on the policy relevance and implications of each academic article will be published as a ‘discussant’ article alongside the academic article. 

You can read more about the study (see also below), here.

 

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Article list

All research articles published in this miniseries will undergo open peer review in the UCL Open: Environment preprint server as per the journals standard peer review process. Links to the articles in this list will direct readers to the latest version of the article; articles will appear in the list as and when they are submitted as preprints and then subsequently officially published after open peer review. Decisions to publish are made by the named Handling Editor after peer review – readers are made aware of who the Handling Editor are, found in the comments section of each submitted preprint version. Read more about how peer review works in the journal here.

Please note that all preprint articles are declared as not yet peer reviewed.

 

Environment and health: how do we close the gap to prevent ill-health, poor well-being, and environmental degradation?

Author: Dan Osborn

 

Covid-19 pandemic: our relationships, environment, and health

Author: Keri Ka-Yee Wong

 

Child externalising and internalising behaviour and parental wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic

Authors: Jill Portnoy, AnaCristina Bedoya, Keri Ka-Yee Wong
Invited discussant comments during the UCL–Penn Global Covid Study webinar ‘Family Life: Stress, Relationship Conflict and Child Adjustment’ by: Dr Yahayra Michel (School of Criminology and Justice Studies, University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA)

 

A three-timepoint network analysis of Covid-19’s impact on schizotypal traits, paranoia and mental health through loneliness

Authors: Keri Ka-Yee Wong, Yi Wang, Gianluca Esposito, Adrian Raine
Invited discussant comments during the UCL–Penn Global COVID Study webinar ‘How Do We Trust (Again): Paranoia and Mental Health’: part 1 of 2 by: Dr Emma Barkus (University of Northumbria, UK) and Invited discussant comments during the UCL–Penn Global COVID Study webinar ‘How Do We Trust (Again): Paranoia and Mental Health’: part 2 of 2 by Mitch Cooke (Head of Sustainability, Greengage Environmental)

 

Self-perceived loneliness and depression during the Covid-19 pandemic: a two-wave replication study

Authors: Alessandro Carollo, Andrea Bizzego, Giulio Gabrieli, Keri Ka-Yee Wong, Adrian Raine, Gianluca Esposito
Invited discussant comments during the UCL-Penn Global COVID Study webinar ‘Alone Together: Loneliness Research and Social Health Innovation in Lockdown and Beyond’ by: Kasley Killam (Founder and President of Social Health labs – @SocialHealthLab)

 

The effects of cumulative stressful educational events on the mental health of doctoral students during the Covid-19 pandemic

Authors: Vasilis Sideropoulos, Emily Midouhas, Dora Kokosi, Jana Brinkert, Keri Ka-Yee Wong, Maria A. Kambouri
Invited discussant comments during the UCL–Penn Global COVID Study webinar ‘Doctoral Students’ Educational Stress and Mental Health’ by: Dr Tara Beteille (Senior Economist, The World Bank)

 

Reflections, resilience and recovery: a qualitative study of Covid-19’s impact on an international adult population’s mental health and priorities for support

Authors: Keri Ka-Yee Wong, Kimberly Loke, Kyleigh Marie Kai-Li Melville
Invited discussant comments during the UCL–Penn Global COVID Study webinar ‘Reflections, Resilience, and Recovery: A qualitative study of Covid-19’s impact on an international adult population’s mental health and priorities for support’: part 1 of 3 by: Deborah Alina (MBE, Chief Executive, Independent Age) 

Invited discussant comments during the UCL–Penn Global COVID Study webinar ‘Reflections, Resilience, and Recovery: A qualitative study of Covid-19’s impact on an international adult population’s mental health and priorities for support’: part 2 of 3 by Professor David Murphy (Clinical Psychologist, The British Psychological Society President 2019-2020, BPS COVID-Response Group Lead)  

Invited discussant comments during the UCL–Penn Global COVID Study webinar ‘Reflections, Resilience, and Recovery: A qualitative study of Covid-19’s impact on an international adult population’s mental health and priorities for support’: part 3 of 3 by Nigel Atter (Policy Advisor, The British Psychological Society)

 

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The UCL-Penn Global COVID Study

The Covid-19: Global study of social trust and mental health study aims to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting mental and physical health, and how findings may inform policies in the coming months and/or assist in future crisis management strategies. Data collection has taken place over the past 12 months (between April-July 2020, October-January 2021, April-July 2021). The study website can be found online at https://globalcovidstudy.com and study details can be found at https://osf.io/fe8q7.

 

Description

This study examines the short- and longer-term effects of COVID-19 on people’s mental health, physical health and social trust in others. This study involves three online surveys administered in April 2020, 6 months, and 12 months from then, 6 months, and 12 months to participants 18+ years and resident of any country. The survey is available in 7 languages.

 

Research Team

• Dr. Keri Ka-Yee Wong (PI), UCL Institute of Education, UCL, UK
• Professor Adrian Raine (Co-I), University of Pennsylvania, USA
• Dr Gianluca Esposito (Collaborator), University of Trento Italy & Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• Dr Jill Portnoy (Collaborator), The University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA

 

Ethics

This project received full ethics approval of the UCL Institute of Education on 8 April 2020 (REC 1331). Documentation available upon request. The survey launched online on 17 April 2020.