Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Czech population experienced a second lockdown lasting for about half a year, restricting free movement and imposing social isolation. However, it is not known whether the impact of this long lockdown resulted in habituation to the adverse situation or in the traumatization of the Czech population, and whether the media and specific media use contributed to these effects. Objective: The aim of this study was to elucidate the effect of the long lockdown on the mental health of the Czech population, and the role of exposure to COVID-19 news reports and specific forms of media news use in mental health. Methods: We conducted two consecutive surveys in the early (November 2020) and late (March/April 2021) phases of the nationwide lockdown on the same nationally representative group of Czech adults (N=1777) participating in a longitudinal panel study. Results: Our findings showed that the self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression increased in the second observation period, confirming the negative effect of the pandemic lockdown as it unfolded, suggesting that restrictive measures and continuous exposure to a collective stressor did not result in the strengthening of resilience but rather in ongoing traumatization. The results also suggest a negative role of the media’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in mental health during the early, and particularly late, phases of the lockdown. Furthermore, we found several risk and protective factors of specific media news use. The media practice in news consumption connected to social media use was the strongest predictor of exacerbated mental health symptoms, particularly in the late phase of the lockdown. Moreover, news media use characterized by internalization of information learned from the news, as well as negative attitudes toward media news, were associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression. Conversely, the use of infotainment, together with an in-depth and contextual style of reading news articles, were related to improvement of mental health. Conclusions: Our study showed that the long lockdown resulted in traumatization rather than habituation, and in more pronounced effects (both negative and positive) of media use in mental health.

中文翻译：

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长期封锁对心理健康的影响和媒体使用的作用：基于网络的调查研究

背景：由于 COVID-19 大流行，捷克人口经历了持续约半年的第二次封锁，限制了自由流动并实施了社会隔离。然而，目前尚不清楚这种长期封锁的影响是否导致捷克民众习惯了不利的局势或造成了创伤，以及媒体和特定媒体的使用是否促成了这些影响。目的：本研究的目的是阐明长期封锁对捷克人口心理健康的影响，以及接触 COVID-19 新闻报道和特定形式的媒体新闻使用在心理健康中的作用。方法：我们在全国封锁的早期（2020 年 11 月）和晚期（2021 年 3 月/2021 年 4 月）对参与纵向小组研究的同一具有全国代表性的捷克成年人群体（N=1777）进行了连续两次调查。结果：我们的研究结果表明，在第二个观察期内，自我报告的焦虑和抑郁症状有所增加，证实了大流行封锁的负面影响，这表明限制性措施和持续暴露于集体压力源并未导致加强复原力，而是在持续的创伤中。结果还表明，在封锁的早期，尤其是晚期，媒体对 COVID-19 大流行的报道对心理健康产生了负面作用。此外，我们发现了特定媒体新闻使用的几个风险和保护因素。与社交媒体使用相关的新闻消费中的媒体实践是心理健康症状恶化的最强预测因素，尤其是在封锁的后期。而且，以从新闻中获得的信息内化为特征的新闻媒体使用以及对媒体新闻的消极态度与更高水平的焦虑和抑郁有关。相反，信息娱乐的使用，以及阅读新闻文章的深度和上下文风格，与改善心理健康有关。结论：我们的研究表明，长时间的封锁导致了创伤而不是习惯化，并且媒体使用对心理健康产生了更明显的影响（负面和正面）。