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Sunday, May 3, 2020

The Pandemic Project, part 2

Back in March, I posted about my participation in a survey from the University of Texas. The Pandemic Project is studying how people's lives are being affected during the COVID-19 pandemic, how they are coping and how reactions are changing over time. When I responded to the first survey, I consented to be contacted for followup, and I received an invitation to complete a second survey on Friday. Both surveys take about 15-20 minutes to complete, and at the end, you receive scores in certain categories and suggestions on coping strategies (which can be emailed to you).
  • On a scale of 0 to 10, my Social Connection score was 7.3, which is higher than average. "This is a very good sign given the restrictions on social behavior," I was told. In the first survey, my Social Connection score was 6.2, or average. Interesting that it's gone up, because I've been feeling more & more isolated as time as gone on (although I remain quite active & in touch with a lot of people on social media.) 
  • My COVID Obsession score is 7.1 -- in the high range, meaning I may be following the coronovirus stories too much. Note, however, that this is an improvement from the first survey, in which my COVID Obsession score was a whopping 10 out of 10! lol 
  • My Healthy Habits score is 6.2 , which means that my general health habits are about average. In other words, my life style is generally good but there is still room for improvement. This is exactly the same score I got in the first survey!
  • My COVID-related Anxiety and Distress score is 7.3 -- mid-range, and similar to the average person. "Your score suggests that you have some anxiety and distress about the outbreak which makes sense." This is an increase from my first survey score of 6.6, which was also said to be average.
Did you take the quiz?  What did you learn from your results?  (If you haven't taken part yet but this has piqued your curiosity, check it out here.) 

2 comments:

  1. It seems only a week or two ago that you (we - as I did it immediately after reading your post) did the survey the first time, but it was about six weeks or more ago!

    I'm very pleased to see that your COVID obsession score has dropped from the perfect 10! I guess because we've learned most of what is known already, there's not the need to click on every article anymore. lol I scored really high on the Healthy Habits the first time - I was walking every day and not baking at all. Habits have slipped!

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  2. Thanks to you I did take the test a few weeks ago (and shared it with family members, who also took it). And I go the email over the weekend to take it again, which I did. Let's just say my decision to not follow news quite so closely has paid off.

    I think I may have missed a calling as a sociologist because I bet this is a fascinating time to see how the human organism does with this even as individuals and as a group. Thank you for sharing this project.

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