Psychological impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on Vietnamese community
International Journal of Social Economics
ISSN: 0306-8293
Article publication date: 11 June 2021
Issue publication date: 18 August 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the psychological impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on Vietnamese people and examines the factors affecting their psychological well-being during and after the lockdown period.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the survey answers of 701 Vietnamese respondents, this study explores the psychological impact associated with COVID-19 lockdown in Vietnam. Using a newly developed “mvord” package in R that controls the heterogeneity in error structure of the sample units (Hirk et al., 2020), the study runs multivariate ordinal logistic regression models to examine the determinants of the emotional outcomes.
Findings
The study discloses negative psychological states among the Vietnamese community during and after the lockdown, including boredom, anxiety, sadness, stress, anger, precautionary measures and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Demographic characteristics (male gender, young age, poor-health condition, high educational level, small family size, officers or professionals, using public transport, quarantine experience before the lockdown, non-extended lockdown period and living in rural areas) and various difficulties during lockdown (insufficient information about COVID-19, income loss, having daily-life difficulties and unhappy experiences during lockdown) are related to higher degrees of different psychological symptoms during and after lockdown in Vietnam.
Originality/value
This study identifies the importance of mitigating the detrimental effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on Vietnamese well-being and prepares the Vietnamese government better to handle the public mental issues during future lockdowns.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Vietnamese respondents for answering the research's questionnaire. The authors would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their contributive and valuable comments and suggestions.
Citation
Gan, C., Anh, D.L.T. and Nguyen, Q.T.T. (2021), "Psychological impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on Vietnamese community", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 48 No. 9, pp. 1347-1371. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-08-2020-0552
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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