| Abstract: |
Several studies have been devoted to establishing the effects of the Covid-19
pandemic on mental health across gender, age and ethnicity. However, much less
attention has been paid to the differential effect of lockdown according to
different personalities. We do this using the UKHLS longitudinal dataset,
representative of the UK population. The UKHLS dataset allows us to assess the
mental health of the same respondent during the Covid-19 period and the year
before based on their personality "Big Five" traits and cognitive skills. We
find that during the Covid-19 period individuals who have more Extrovert and
Open personality report a higher mental health deterioration, while the ones
scoring higher in Agreeableness are less affected. The effect of Openness is
particularly strong: one more standard deviation predict one more symptom on
the GHQ12 test for about 1 respondent over 4. In female respondents, Cognitive
Skills and Openness are particularly strong predictors of deterioration.
Neuroticism seems to predict more mental health deterioration, as it is normal
to expect, but this effect is not significant in the main specifications of
the estimated model. The study's results are robust to the inclusion of
potential confounding variables such as changes in: physical health, household
income and job status (like unemployed or furloughed). |