The Assessment of Socio-Psychological Effects of COVID-19 on Turkish People

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to measure the socio-psychological effects of the COVID-19 on Turkish people, and the scale was developed by the researchers. The study is limited between 24.03.2020 and 29.03.2020. The universe of the study, which included Turkey’s population, is 15 year and older people. The study was carried out on 652 people. The data obtained from the questionnaires were investigated with SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) program and Lisrel. Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis H test, and analysis of simple linear regression was performed. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied with the Lisrel program. The validity (KMO = 0.867/p = 0.000) and reliability analysis (α = 0.863) results of the scale are rather high. Looking to dimension scores, it was observed that the anxiety dimension had the highest score (x = 38.3; sd = 7.29) and followed by the sociopolitical impact dimension (x = 18.7; sd = 4.04). The lowest mean dimension is the psychosocial impact dimension (x̄ = 14.4; sd = 5.48). According to the correlation analysis, it was a positively found relationship between anxiety and psychosocial impact, economic anxiety, and sociopolitical impact; a positive relationship between economic anxiety and sociopolitical effect with psychosocial impact; a positive relationship between economic anxiety and sociopolitical impact. The regression model established between all other dimensions was found significant (p < 0.05). It was found a significant difference between the dimensions of the scale with personal and occupational variables (p < 0.05).

Keywords

• covid-19
• pandemic
• perception
• mental health
• turkey