Page 74 - JCBP-3-3

Journal of Clinical and
Basic Psychosomatics Emotional effects of COVID-19 memories

you got infected with COVID-19. eight baseline conditions). In total, 765 segments consisting
4. Please think about the COVID-19 news broadcasting of 216,000 data points were collected across all participants.
throughout the pandemic and how it made you feel. All segments were visually inspected for artifacts.
5. Please think about a time you felt lonely throughout To eliminate the effect of the beep that alerted
the pandemic. participants of a change in task, the first 10 seconds of both
6. Please think about the time you were searching the the COVID-19 and baseline conditions were removed,
internet for more information about COVID-19 leaving 30 s of data for analysis of each memory and 20 s of
symptoms and/or restrictions each baseline condition.
7. Please think about your reaction to panic buying in
the supermarkets at the start of the pandemic. 2.5.2. COVID-19-related memory EDA data
8. Please think about the time you or someone close EDA data, which were collected during memory recall (30 s),
to you experienced financial difficulties due to the were averaged for every participant for every memory. This
COVID-19 pandemic. yielded 9 average memory scores for every participant.
9. Please think about the time the schools closed and you
had to participate in online education. 2.5.3. EDA data in between memory recall used as
baseline
2.4. Measures
Electrodermal data collected between memory recall were
2.4.1. Depression, anxiety, and stress scale (DASS-21) averaged resulting in 8 baseline scores for every participant.
The DASS-21 scale is a self-report instrument for mental These 8 scores were later averaged to yield one mean for all
health assessment consisting of three 7-item subscales. 8 baseline scores. This final mean was used in the statistical
27
Participants indicate on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from analysis as the baseline average.
0 (Did not apply to me at all) to 3 (Applied to me very much, Final EDA data used for statistical analysis consisted
or most of the time) the degree in which a symptom has been of 10 EDA scores for each participant (9 scores for
present over the past week. The Dass-21 measures negative COVID-19-related stressors and 1 baseline score) which
affectivity in 3 dimensions: depression, anxiety, and stress. 27 was later used in the statistical analysis.

2.4.2. Self-report COVID-19 stressors 3. Results
Within this section, participants answered questions based 3.1. Age and gender distribution
on 9 COVID-19 stressors with 2 – 4 items per stressor.
These questions allowed an opportunity to determine what The mean age of the students (n = 45) participating in
aspects of that COVID-19 factors are perceived as more the research was 21.69 with a standard deviation being
anxiety inducing, if at all. Participants indicate on a 7-point 3.34. Out of the 45 participants, 34 indicated that they
Likert scale ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally identify as female (75.6%) and 11 participants identify as
agree) the degree in which they relate to the statements. male (24.4%). No participants chose the “other” option
Every stressor therefore was measured on the scale of 1 – when indicating their gender. Significantly more females
7 (1 representing the lowest anxiety for the stressor and 7 participated in the experiment compared to the number of
representing the highest anxiety for the stressor). males χ2 (1,45) = 11.76, P = 0.001.
2.5. Data analysis 3.2. Self-report
2.5.1. EDA To identify which COVID-19-related stressors (based on
the self-report questionnaire) caused more anxiety for the
For the measurement of EDA, the open-source bio monitor participants, repeated measure ANOVA was conducted
(OBIMON) was used with an 8 Hz sampling frequency. on the 9 self-report COVID-19-related stressors with the
28
For the collection of EDA data, disposable Ag/AgC1 within subject effects of different stressors. The repeated
electrodes were used.
measure ANOVA yielded a significant within subject
To evaluate the level of physiological arousal during effect, F (5.44,190.50) = 2.49, P = 0.028, η = 0.07. Self-
2
memory recall, raw EDA data were utilized. Forty-five report anxiety scores for COVID-19 stressors significantly
participants recalled 9 COVID-19-related memories for differed (Figure 1). Changes in daily routine were rated as
40 s, and eight baseline periods (instructions were always to the highest anxiety causing stressor, while loneliness and
“think of a white wall”) for 30 s, in between the COVID-19- online education were rated as the lowest anxiety causing
related memories. This resulted in 17 segments of EDA data stressor. Pairwise comparisons were also conducted to
per participant (nine COVID-19-related memories and determine which stressors differed significantly from each

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2025) 68 doi: 10.36922/jcbp.4825