Comparison of psychological resilience of different groups of society during COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia

To examine psychological resilience (PRs) in different socio-demographics groups of society during COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia. The origin of data is national representative cross-sectional online survey (N = 2606), performed in July, 2020, from research project „Impact of COVID-19 on health care system and public health in Latvia: ways in preparing health sector for future epidemics”, project No. VPP-COVID-2020/1-0011. For the purpose of this study socio-demographical questions (gender, age, employment status, marital status, parental status, health status) and 7 items forming PRs scale (PRS; Perepjolkina & Mārtinsone, in preparation) were selected. The Independent samples T-test and one-way ANOVA was used to test statistical differences between the means of psychological resilience within groups. There was statistically significant difference between persons with children and without children, t = - 2.62, p < .01, between persons without chronic condition and persons with chronic condition, t = -2.02, p < .05. Based on PostHoc Tamhane test, there was statistically significant difference between age groups 18-29 and 60-69 years, p = .014, Welch’s F (5, 749) = 2.68, p = .021; between occupation status groups “employed” and “unemployed” (p < .01), between “retired due to age” and “unemployed” (p < .01), Welch`s F (5, 249) = 4.28, p < .001; between single and married (p < .001), single and divorced (p< .05), single and cohabited (p < .05), Welch’s F (5, 259) = 5.76, p < .001. The results of the study identified socio-demographic factors which can serve as indicators regarding to lower PRs. These factors are individuals in age 18 - 29, those who are unemployed, single, without children and with chronic condition. Recommendations due to PRs promotion during pandemics should be developed, taking into account the specifics of those groups.