Covid-19 and Mental Health

This mini-series on Cocvid-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’.

You can read more about the study below or read the articles here.

Covid-19, mental health, and the environment in which we live

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. 

UCL Open Environment (from UCL Press, University College London UK) publishes and showcases the latest and most critical research on all aspects of the Environment.

UCL Open Environment is a fully non-commercial, Open Science scholarly journal, publishing high impact, multi-disciplinary research, on real world environmental issues. UCL Open Environment removes publication barriers and transcends boundaries to bring together works from the most renowned researchers, alongside innovative and emerging new voices, policy makers and professionals.

Learn more about UCL Open Environment.

Article list

All research articles published in this miniseries undergo open peer review in the UCL Open: Environment preprint server as per the journals standard peer review process. Links to the articles in the article list will direct readers to the latest version of the article or published version of record; 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 is, 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.

Editorial

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

Author: Keri Ka-Yee Wong
Published: 16 September 2022

Research article

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

Authors: Gianluca Esposito, Andrea Bizzego, Alessandro Carollo, Giulio Gabrieli
Published: 03 November 2022

Discussant article

Invited discussant comments during the UCL-Penn Global COVID Study webinar ‘Alone Together: Loneliness Research and Social Health Innovation in Lockdown and Beyond’

Author: Kasley Killam, Founder and President of Social Health labs (@SocialHealthLab)
Published: 03 November 2022

Research article

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

Author: Keri Ka-Yee Wong, Yi Wang, Gianluca Esposito, Adrian Raine
Published: 01 November 2022

Discussant article

Invited discussant comments during the UCL–Penn Global COVID Study webinar ‘How Do We Trust (Again): Paranoia and Mental Health’: part 1 of 2

Author: Dr Emma Barkus, University of Northumbria, UK
Published: 01 November 2022

Discussant article

Invited discussant comments during the UCL–Penn Global COVID Study webinar ‘How Do We Trust (Again): Paranoia and Mental Health’: part 2 of 2

Author: Mitch Cooke, Head of Sustainability, Greengage Environmental
Published: 01 November 2022

Reseatch article

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

Author: Jill Portnoy, AnaCristina Bedoya, Keri Ka-Yee Wong
Published: 16 September 2022

Discussant article

Invited discussant comments during the UCL–Penn Global Covid Study webinar ‘Family Life: Stress, Relationship Conflict and Child Adjustment’

Author: Dr Yahayra Michel, School of Criminology and Justice Studies, University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA
Published: 16 September 2022

Research article

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
Published: 08 November 2022

Discussant article

Invited discussant comments during the UCL–Penn Global Covid Study webinar

Author: Dr Tara Beteille, Senior Economist, The World Bank, USA
Published
: 15 December 2022

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.

Related series’

UCL Open: Environment is running this on-going call for papers concerned with the effects on the environment that are and will be consequential on the societal restrictions and subsequent recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read more at https://ucl-about.scienceopen.com/covid19-specialseries