What is it about?
Our research project consists of multiple phases.
In the first part of phase 1, we kindly ask our participants to fill out some questionnaires concerning the topics mental health, resilience and social cohesion. The questions refer to general life circumstances and emotional state as well as and daily social behaviour during the following periods of time:
- 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)
We are planning an additional assessment of the month of March 2021.
As another part of phase 1, we want to investigate whether there are genetic markers, which relate to stress, resilience and social cohesion. Therefore, we collected saliva samples from some of our participants.
How do we continue?
In the second phase of our study we invite some of our participants to take part in a mental training intervention program via smartphone!
It is a regular 12-minute mental exercise over several weeks, which is bound to help reduce stress and loneliness and increase well-being. The positive impact of similar mental training programs has been scientifically explored across the world and was confirmed, for example, by the participants of a large-scale research project conducted by the Max-Planck Society.
The intervention is, of course, free of charge and you will receive a monetary compensation for your participation.
Before the mental training intervention starts, we will inform you in detail about its specific course and content. Furthermore, we will conduct different tests before and after the intervention, in order to investigate its impact on mental health, resilience and social experiencing and behaviour.
