key: cord-0736587-2x89dvoe authors: Yang, Haiyang; Ma, Jingjing title: How an Epidemic Outbreak Impacts Happiness: Factors that Worsen (vs. Protect) Emotional Well-being during the Coronavirus Pandemic date: 2020-04-30 journal: Psychiatry Res DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113045 sha: bfc9f73192036537b37bcfb798e5cb5e0793e3d7 doc_id: 736587 cord_uid: 2x89dvoe What are the factors that worsen (vs. protect) emotional well-being during a pandemic outbreak such as COVID-19? Through two large-scale nationwide surveys (N(1) = 11,131; N(2) = 3,000) conducted in China immediately before versus during the coronavirus outbreak, we found that the onset of the coronavirus epidemic led to a 74% drop in overall emotional well-being. Factors associated with the likelihood of contracting the disease (e.g., residing near the epicenter), extent of potential harm (e.g., being an elderly), and relational issues (e.g., those within a marriage) exacerbated the detrimental effect of the outbreak on emotional well-being. Further, individuals’ perception of their knowledge about coronavirus infection was another factor. Regardless of the actual amount of knowledge they possessed, those perceiving themselves as more knowledgeable, were able to experience more happiness during the outbreak. Higher perceived knowledge was associated with a stronger sense of control, which mediated the differences in emotional well-being. These patterns persisted even after controlling for a host of demographic and economic variables. In conclusion, public policies and mental health interventions aimed at boosting/protecting psychological well-being during epidemics should take account of these factors. From MERS and SARS to H1N1, Zika and Ebola, people around the world have been facing rampant waves of infectious diseases. New pandemics are anticipated to occur at an increasing frequency (Wolfe, 2011) . One of the direst consequences of these pandemics is its negative impact on people' emotional well-being (Lu et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020 ). Yet the current understanding of how an outbreak influences people's life such as their emotional well-being remains limited. Much prior research has focused on well-being differences across, for example, gender (Wood, Rhodes, and Whelan, 1989) , age (Steptoe, Deaton, and Stone, 2015) , social connectedness (Myers, 1999) and income levels (Kahneman and Deaton, 2010) , as well as individual dispositions (Diener and Seligman, 2002) and consumption patterns (Dunn, Aknin, and Norton, 2008 (Kahneman and Deaton, 2010) Table 1 ). The analyses not only established a consistent, significant negative effect of the outbreak on emotional well-being, but also revealed a set of significant interactions: (i) Individuals residing in Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak, experienced a larger decline in emotional well-being. Because the overwhelming majority of Chinese coronavirus patients resided in that region (Dong, Du, and Gardner, 2020) We also examined the main effects of the demographic and economic variables on emotional well-being. Marriage and income were the only two variables that had a consistent and significant effect on emotional well-being. Specifically, married people enjoyed a higher emotional well-being than unmarried ones and higher income led to a higher emotional well-being. These results are consistent with psychological well-being patterns in other countries examined in prior research (Wood, Rhodes, and Whelan, 1989; Lucas and Schimmack, 2009 ). Next, we analyzed the data collected during the outbreak. We ran a series of regressions with emotional well-being as the dependent variable, perceived knowledge, actual knowledge, whether the individual resided in Hubei, age, sex, marital status, income, and the interaction terms between the demographic variables and perceived knowledge as predictors (see Table 2 ). Across all regression models, participants' perceived knowledge about coronavirus infection was a consistent, significant predictor of their emotional well-being. However, their actual knowledge was not a consistent predictor. In other words, people's perceived level of knowledge about coronavirus infection served as a stronger protector of their emotional well-being during the outbreak than the actual amount of knowledge they possessed. To assess the underlying mechanism, we tested whether sense of control mediated the effect of perceived knowledge on emotional well-being. 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