Wave 4 summary: late May 2020, 2 months into lockdown

20th Jun 2020

In Wave 4, in late May 2020, 2 months in the lockdown we found that:

In general, while the extent of coping well is improving among the population as a whole, it appears that certain groups are at greater risk of experiencing poor, and in some cases, deteriorating mental health.

In general, the trend of the proportion of people reporting being anxious in the last two weeks as a result of the coronavirus pandemic is downwards since the first survey carried out in mid-March, having fallen from 62% to 53%.

A higher proportion of people with long-term health conditions (62%), single parents (59%), young people aged 25 to 34 (63%), and women (62%) reported having been anxious/worried compared to the overall adult population.

Wave 4 cover

Higher proportions of young people aged 18 to 24 (47%) and single parents (44%) report having been lonely in the previous two weeks than the adult population overall (26%).

Higher proportions of young people aged 18 to 24 (30%), adults aged 25 to 34 (28%), and single parents (30%) report being hopeless in the previous two weeks than the overall adult population (18%).

In general, the proportion of people reporting having panicked in the previous two weeks has gone down since the first survey carried out in mid-March, from 22% to 13%

But the trend is upward for the proportion of unemployed people that have panicked in the previous two weeks (from 18% in early April to 24% in late May).

In general, the proportion of people reporting financial concerns as a result of the pandemic has decreased from 42% in mid-March to 29% at the end of May

However, the trend is upward for unemployed people (from 47% in early April to 56% in late May).

The proportion of people reporting financial concerns was much higher for unemployed (56%), single parents (45%), parents of children age 5 to 11 (40%), parents of children age 12 to 16 (40%) and young people age 25 to 34 (41%) than for the overall adult population (29%).

A higher proportion of people with long-term health conditions (30%), single parents (26%), and unemployed people (26%) are not coping well compared to the population overall (14%).

Was this content useful?