The Influence of COVID-19 on Well-Being

The COVID-19 outbreak has affected people’s lives across the globe. To investigate how the pandemic impacts well-being, we compiled a large and comprehensive data-set of 2231 working adults covering 454 counties across 48 states in the U.S. from social media using machine learning tools. We found that pandemic severity influenced working adults’ negative affect rather than positive affect. However, the relationship between pandemic severity and the negative affect was moderated by personality (i.e., openness and conscientiousness) and family connectedness. Specifically, pandemic severity did not influence the well-being of those who were open to new experiences, who were conscientious, and those who were connected to family. We did not find the moderation effect of age, some other personality traits (i.e., extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism), faith, friend connectedness, or having kids on the relationship between pandemic severity and working adults’ negative affect.