Public attitudes to Coronavirus – June and early July summary

3. Wellbeing

Levels of loneliness, anxiety and happiness

To understand social isolation, respondents were also asked how much of the time during the past week they had felt lonely. As shown in Figure 13, around a quarter felt lonely ‘all or most of the time’. Around a third felt lonely ‘some of the time’ and around two-fifths felt lonely ‘none or almost none of the time’. Loneliness levels have remained fairly stable since the beginning of June.

Source: Ipsos MORI, Scotland data. Base (n=500).

The YouGov weekly survey included two of the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) wellbeing questions^[9] to measure levels of anxiety and happiness. Respondents were asked how anxious and how happy they felt ‘yesterday’, on a scale of 0 to 10.

As shown in Figure 14, anxiety levels have remained stable and relatively high since the beginning of June. However, as reported previously, anxiety levels at the start of lockdown were much higher; 60% felt highly anxious (score of 6-10) on March 24-25.^[10]

Source: YouGov weekly Scotland survey. Base (n=1003-1048)

As shown in Figure 15, the majority of respondents reported high or very high levels of happiness (score of 7-10), which has remained fairly stable since the start of June. Just around one in five felt low levels of happiness (score of 0-4), which was stable throughout June but lower than at the beginning of lockdown (34%, 24-25 March).^[11]

Source: YouGov weekly Scotland survey. Base (n=1003-1048)

Coping, worries and optimism

Respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statements shown in Figure 16. The proportion who agreed that they felt worried about the Coronavirus situation fell in the middle of June and has since increased slightly and stabilised. The proportion who agreed that ‘things will start to get better soon’ increased towards the middle of June and then decreased again in July.

Source: YouGov weekly Scotland survey. Base (n=1003-1048).

Neighbourhood experiences

Respondents were asked about their sense of belonging to their neighbourhood and how safe they felt walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark. As shown in Figure 17, the majority felt a sense of belonging to their immediate neighbourhood. The majority also felt safe walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark, however this has declined slightly since early June.

Source: Ipsos MORI, Scotland data. Scottish base (n=500)