Dr Michaela Brohm-Badry (University of Trier) ran a survey on how the COVID-19 restrictions affected people in their daily life.
Here are some of the findings:
Researcher: Corona restrictions put less strain than expected.
Despite corona restrictions, according to a survey most people do not feel strongly restricted in their autonomous actions: Only 24 percent of those surveyed said they were frustrated about being restricted in their freedom, said Michaela Brohm-Badry from the University of Trier, the head of the research project, to the German Press Agency. Around two thirds (63 percent) of those surveyed still considered themselves to be acting fully autonomously. "The result took us by surprise. We expected higher frustration."
There is a reason why the limitations are not perceived as such: if people understood them as necessary, they could accept them better, said Brohm-Badry, President of the German Society for Positive Psychological Research. It is possible that the political representatives succeeded in activating this ability to understand.
The project will investigate over a longer period of time how people in and after Corona times cope with their basic needs - and what is particularly important to them. After a first nationwide online survey round from the end of April to mid-May, it was also shown that relationships currently play the most important role for well-being: 94 percent of those surveyed said they were satisfied with their relationships in their direct environment. In the first round 422 adults were interviewed.
Many had reported that they had more time for partnership, children and family, Brohm-Badry said. "It shows that people have already come together in the crisis." The researchers would have expected a lower value. "But in times of crisis one seems to rediscover the value of relationships."
(article translated by our board member Claudia Neumeister from Der Spiegel)