Social restrictions in the Covid-19 pandemic as a traumatic experience: psycholinguistic markers

We found that the most important words in narratives about life changes during a pandemic for the entire sample were: “time”(SVD=100.00), “life”(SVD=81.42), “became”(SVD=72.12) and “further” (SVD=71.80). Respondents are concerned about the current situation and the possible continuation of quarantine restrictions and pandemics. We outlined differences in the importance of words in the narratives by gender. For men, words “was” (SVD=89.44) and “teaching” (SVD=87.18) more important. Men focused more on the past and on their studies (the sample was formed of students). For example, “Extremely sharp, because I was not ready for such a turn of events, but at the same time it was an interesting experience, such a thing has not been so long ago. There were times when I felt like a prisoner because there were restrictions on moving on the street, but it was not very difficult to survive”. The results show that for women the words “became”(SVD=79.56), “less”(SVD=53.85), “further”(SVD=78.51), “friends”(SVD=60.75) are more important. Women talked more about current and future events, worried about the reduction of social contacts. For example, “My life has changed. Became less communication, less time with friends and godparents. You walk away from all people because everyone is potentially contagious”.

Discussion

The study aimed to identify psycholinguistic markers of a traumatic event in the description of the pandemic experience. In addition, the target was to determine differences in psycholinguistic and meaningful markers of pandemic narratives in men and women.

We expected that narratives would have psycholinguistic markers of a traumatic event. Zasiekina et al. (2019) proposed psycholinguistic markers of traumatic memory, including the number of words in the narrative, the category of external agent, time, and place. In our study, we obtained relevant markers of pandemic narratives. Our results show that the number of words in narratives is negatively correlated with the focus on the past participle and cognitive processes. There is also a positive correlation between social category, religion, and the number of words in the narrative (see table 1). These results demonstrate that the larger the description of the experience of a pandemic, the less conscious and thoughtful it is. Some studies emphasize the important role of religiosity and social support in combating mental health problems (Kostruba, 2020).

Respondents describe the pandemic experience using pronouns and adverbs (for example, this, everyone, not at all), which serve as markers of depersonalization. The processed texts have high indicators of cognitive complexity (Table 2), which also confirms the high percentage of use of prepositions and conjunctions. We suggest this peculiarity demonstrates the attempt to make sense of the pandemic and its meaning using the words “was”, “became”, “carefully”, “necessary”, and so on.

Narratives are filled with words that indicate high rates of affective processes (Table 2), including negative emotions (“bad”, “problems”, “critically difficult”). High levels of emotionality of texts may indicate immersion in a traumatic event (Pennebaker et al., 2014; Uvarova, 2016). However, the levels of anxiety presented by respondents are quite low, which may be due to the long duration of the pandemic and the ability to adapt to new living conditions. In their descriptions of the pandemic experience, respondents focus on the past; there are no thoughts about the future. Hence, they point to the COVID-19 virus as close in space and time.

Another task of the study was to identify meaningful markers of narratives about the pandemic. Here it was found that the respondents turned more to the description of affective and social processes as well as focused on the temporal characteristics of their experience and space. SVD analysis revealed the main words most often used by respondents and their weight (display of text patterns). In such a way, the word "time" is the most frequent in narratives about a pandemic; it has the greatest meaning (Table 3). In describing the pandemic experience, there is a clear distinction between before and after. Respondents use the words “past” and “present”, which are also often repetitive and meaningful. The division of life experience into time periods before and after the event is a confirmation of the trauma for a person (Schock et al., 2016). Thus, the frequency of words use “was”,“became” is a semantic indicator of the traumatic experience of a pandemic. Additionally, the words such as “the beginning” and “further” have a rather large meaning and frequency of use. Respondents are concerned about the protracted time of the pandemic and the fact that it will not end. That is, the audience does not know how the situation will unfold in the future and discuss the continuation of current events and the pandemic.

In addition to the findings already mentioned, the use of the word “life” is of great importance, which demonstrates the scale of the impact of the pandemic that has led to significant changes in all spheres of life. Of course, respondents are concerned about their physical condition, which is manifested in the frequent use of the words “treatment”, “health”, “quarantine”. The narratives raise the issue of reducing the ability to communicate offline. Most often individuals denote such an experience with the words “less”, “friends”, “at home”, “remotely”, “restrictions”. Also important is the topic of changing opportunities to study and work.

The next task of our study was to identify differences in psycholinguistic and meaningful markers of the description of the pandemic in men and women. We found many statistical distinctions in psycholinguistic markers. Thus, in describing their experience, women are more verbose than men. For example, when describing the experience of a pandemic, women often use personal pronouns, adverbs, and conjunctions; interrogatives and quantifiers. For example, while “less” is frequently used in women's narratives, it is not recorded in men's ones at all.

However, men's narratives are more saturated with affective processes than women's (table 2). Namely, a positive correlation of the category of emotional processes with the male sex was revealed. They are more likely to use the words “bad”, “problem”, “security”, and so on. Though, general comparison shows that the narratives written by women are more positively emotionally oriented.

Women to a greater extent than men in their narratives turned to social processes, namely, talking about friends and other people. While men are more concerned about the experience of studying and working in a pandemic.

In women's narratives, more attention is focused on biological processes. That is, they are more likely than men to discuss health and treatment because the cause of the pandemic is a reduction in the spread of the disease. In terms of time perspective, males in comparison to females hardly consider the present and the future, being focused on the past. Another confirmation of this thesis - the word “was” more often used by men.

Conclusions

Analysis of narratives on the pandemic made it possible to identify a set of psycholinguistic markers that confirm the trauma of such an experience. Among them are a marker of time, depersonalization, and affective processes. Narratives are aimed at discussing and assessing mainly past events; there is a clear distinction between the time span of life before and after, which is typical of traumatic experiences. Given that the pandemic continues, such a distinction in the descriptions is made using the words “was”, “therefore”, “continued”, “further”. The COVID-19 virus is defined as close in space and time. The psychological marker of affective processes is reflected in the manifestation of negative emotions through the words “bad”, “problems”, “critical”, “difficult”, which indicates immersion in a traumatic event. In general, the processed narratives have high indicators of cognitive complexity. However, the inverse relationship of this indicator with the number of words in the narrative was found. That is, not all respondents understood their life experience in a pandemic, which may indicate the trauma of such an experience.

A semantic analysis of narratives made it possible to identify the main markers - time and life. Respondents are focused on the duration of the pandemic, excited and waiting for it to end, as indicated by the frequent use of the words “beginning”, “continuation”, “further”, and so on. A semantic marker of life indicates major changes in daily life due to the pandemic. Within this marker, respondents spoke about social limitations and physical health.

The study also aimed to identify differences in psycholinguistic and semantic markers of pandemic description in men and women. In general, females' narratives are larger; they use more words (pronouns, adverbs, and conjunctions; interrogatives; and quantifiers) than males'. In terms of content, the latter are more likely to discuss affective processes, using “bad”, “problem”, “security”, and so on. Women are also more likely to concentrate on social and biological processes, namely referring to friends their health. While men are more concerned about the experience of studying and working in a pandemic, and they are more focused on how it was before the pandemic.

The study is only our first step towards understanding the pandemic as a traumatic event within the collective experience. Prospects for further study can be seen in expanding the study sample. It will be appropriate to identify differences in the traumatic experience the pandemic had on both those who were diagnozed with COVID-19 and those who were not. In addition, the study of the perception of time in different age groups in a pandemic seems promising.

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