A longitudinal mixed-methods population study of the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: Psychological and social adjustment to a global threat

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The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented global restrictions on freedom of movement, social and economic activity. Pandemics may cause fear in the population, affecting behaviour which in turn may propagate or restrict the further spread of the virus. Social and economic restrictions may also have a major impact on population mental health, especially affecting vulnerable groups, influencing the nation's ability to recover once the pandemic is over. To investigate these mental health effects, it is necessary to collect data using validated measures capturing mental health and decision-making early and throughout the pandemic. Prior to our work leading to this application, no research has addressed this. With initial seed funding from the Universities of Sheffield and Ulster, we assessed mental health and other relevant variables in 2025 UK adults who are highly representative of the UK population in the week of March 23rd, and followed them up in a second wave between April 20th and 30th, with a 69% follow-up rate. We measured not only mental health but many other social and Our work is already being used by the Cabinet Office, Public Health England and the Department of Health and Social Care. We request funding for five further waves of data collection (including one wave of increased sampling to ensure that the four nations/provinces of the UK are fully represented). We also seek funding for more detailed investigations of subgroups within our sample using qualitative interviews of vulnerable people (e.g. older people, people with pre-existing medical conditions) conducted over the telephone, cognitive testing of decision-making processes relevant to the perception of infection risk, and momentary experience sampling (in which people are contact at random intervals throughout the day to ask them about their experiences and feelings) extending until March 2021 after the hoped-for end of the crisis. We will achieve a complete picture of the psychology of a country during crisis and release our findings to the public and government in a timely manner, and make the data available to other scientists.