COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: the role of social identification and social and political trust on well-being and distress
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COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: the role of social identification and social and political trust on well-being and distress Daniele Paolini 1
&
Fridanna Maricchiolo 1 & Maria Giuseppina Pacilli 2 & Stefano Pagliaro 3
Accepted: 15 October 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly become a global health crisis, leading people to change their interpersonal behaviours to contain the spread of the virus. Italy has rapidly become the country hit second hardest in the world by the COVID-19 pandemic and the first one in Western countries. To reduce the spread of the COVID-19, people are required to change their interpersonal behaviours, reducing their social interactions in close contacts. The lockdown impact on the economy as well as on social and psychological processes is relevant, we conducted an exploratory study to examine which social factors are associated with the psychological reactions of Italians during the COVID-19 lockdown. Participants (n = 690) self-reported their social identification on three levels (i.e., Italians, Europeans and humankind), their trust toward social and political actors, and their level of welbeing, interdependent-happiness, and distress. Results showed that the relation between trust and the level of wellbeing and distress was mediated by identification with Italians and humankind, only the identification with humankind mediated the relationship between trust and the level of interdependent-happiness. The identification with Europeans did not emerge as a mediator in such relationships. The implications for dealing with COVID-19 lockdown in Italy are discussed. Keywords COVID-19 . Social identification . Trust . Well-being . Distress
Since December 2019, a new acute respiratory syndrome in humans has emerged in Wuhan, China (i.e., Covid-19), causing a rapid spread of over 118,000 cases and over 4000 deaths in 114 countries in just three months (Zhou et al. 2020). This emergency led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a global pandemic, leading to a massive global public health campaign to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 through compliance with specific indications and restrictions (i.e., increasing handwashing, reducing face touching, wearing masks in public, and physical distancing; Van Bavel et al. 2020). At the beginning of the virus spread in Europe, Italy has rapidly become the country hit second hardest in the world by the COVID-19 pandemic and the first one in Western countries. As a consequence, the Italian government has imposed a
* Daniele Paolini [email protected] 1
University of Roma Tre, Rome, Italy
2
University of Perugia, 06123 Perugia, PG, Italy
3
University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
state of emergency lockdown, which previously started in northern Italy and then, on the 10th March 2020, has expanded to the whole country. It lasted until 4th May 2020 to contain a contagion that, at the time of writing, has infected over 240.436 people and killed 34.744 Italians, while the infected around the world exceed 10m
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