About the CovSocial Project
Our research project was divided into two phases and was completed in March 2022.
In the first phase, we asked our participants to complete several questionnaires around the topics of mental health, resilience and social cohesion. The questions were related to general life circumstances, emotional well-being as well as daily social behaviour in the following periods:
- Shortly before the corona crisis (January 2020)
- During the first most intense restrictions in Germany (mid-March to mid-April 2020)
- When the restrictions were eased (June 2020)
- During the partial lockdown (November 2020)
- During the second lockdown (December 2020)
- When the second lockdown got extended (January 2021 – March/April 2021)
In addition, we collected genetic markers as part of Phase 1 to investigate whether these are linked to stress, resilience and social cohesion. Therefore, we collected saliva samples from some of our participants.
Intervention Study (Phase 2)
In the second phase of our study, we invited some of our participants from phase 1 to take part in various mental training programmes via smartphone.
These were programmes lasting several weeks in which regular 12-minute mental exercises were carried out. These are supposed to help reduce stress and loneliness and increase life satisfaction. The positive effects of similar mental training programmes have already been scientifically researched worldwide and have also been examined and confirmed by users in a large-scale research project conducted by the Max-Planck Society.
The data collection for the training programmes has now been completed. Our scientists are currently analysing the results of the study.
