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ABSTRACT An online survey was conducted in Germany during the lockdown period to assess its psycho-social consequences. A convenience sample N = 2009 (comparable representation of former GDR and West Germany, 71% females) took part in the survey. The results show a negative impact of the corona pandemic on subjective well-being, health and life satisfaction. We also found a lower sense of security and an increase in anxiety. Additional strains follow a social gradient: Most apparent are negative effects on people with low educational background whose general life satisfaction particularly decreased and gender-specific differences in coping with everyday life challenges, this involves in particular mothers, who have to organise childcare and home schooling more often than fathers. Again, while parents generally felt constrained by social consequences of the pandemic, mothers were particularly affected, feeling more often exhausted, nervous and insecure than fathers. However, the crisis had some positives, too: the experience of stress and exhaustion was reduced; the crisis also revealed resources, such as adaptability in dealing with the changed time situation and new opportunities for self-care. The results illustrate that in this time of crisis, the family can be both a place of resilience and retreat as well as a stress factor.
Ohlbrecht et al. (Fri,) studied this question.