What kinds of traumatic emotional responses occurred during the COVID-19 outbreak?


Posted June 24, 2020 by terezaslavickova

Fear, anger and hopelessness were the most frequent traumatic emotional responses in the general public during the first stage of outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in the Czech Republic.

 
Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, a distinguished scientific source, has published a report describing the emotional responses of the Czech population to the COVID-19 outbreak and the pessimistic communication tone used by the Czech mass media.
“The four most frequent categories of fear were determined as follows: fear of the negative impact on household finances, fear of the negative impact on the household finances of significant others, fear of the unavailability of health care, and fear of an insufficient food supply,” says Radek Trnka, PhD, a senior researcher at the Olomouc University Social Health Institute. Trnka and Lorencova synthesized all available data on emotional reactions to the COVID-19 outbreak into a comprehensive picture of ongoing public emotional response to the crisis.
“One of the most interesting findings was that women indicated fear more often than men, while men were rather inclined to experience anger. Interestingly, a large proportion of the sample, 39% of all participants, did not show any substantial psychological trauma and reported that they felt relatively fine,” says Lorencova.
This study, published in the journal Psychological Trauma, clearly shows that the communication used by the Czech mass media during the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic was a representative example of a traumatizing form of media communication during an epidemic. Trnka claims: “Well, the media can play a crucial role for enhancing well-being in a population during times of unprecedented crises like the COVID-19 pandemic; however, when they choose a proper and ethical form of communication”.

Contact: Radek Trnka, PhD can be contacted via email: [email protected]; ORCID: 0000-0003-3731-468X; https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Radek_Trnka
Story source: Materials provided by Olomouc University Social Health Institute
Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference: Trnka, R., & Lorencova, R. (2020). Fear, anger, and media-induced trauma during the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Czech Republic. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tra0000675
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Issued By Tereza Slavickova
Country Czech Republic
Categories Biotech
Tags covid19 , emotional reactions to traumatic events , pandemic , psychological trauma , public health
Last Updated June 24, 2020