Background

On March 20th, via an online international Psychological Methods Discussion Group (a group of specialists, with more than 29 million members across the world, through the Facebook platform) Dr. Andreas Lieberoth from Aarhus University, Denmark, proposed the development of a transcultural project to study stress factors during the COVID-19 pandemic and how this situation impacts decision making and trust in governments.

During the first phase, nearly 100 researchers from across the world collaborated (https://covidistress.github.io/about/), within the México team the collaborators are Dr. Vicenta Reynoso Alcántara of Veracruzana University and the UNAM Open University and Distance Education System, Dr. Fernanda Pérez-Gay Juárez, from McGill University in Canadá, Dr. Carlos C. Contreras Ibáñez from the Autonomous Metropolitan University – Iztapalapa, Dr. Claudio Rafael Castro López and Dr. Rubén Flores González, also from the Veracruzana University in its Public Opinion Center.

From the beginning, Dr. Lieberoth determined the project would be conducted using an open science protocol, which would allow access to all the data by any member of the scientific community interested in submitting a protocol to analyze the results via the Open Science Framework (OSF), wherein the project is registered as COVIDiSTRESS.

A survey was generated which is being disseminated simultaneously in all countries where there are active collaborators. The survey investigates processes such as decision-making, trust in the authorities (at various levels), ways in which the situation has affected people's lives, psychological factors such as personality, social provision, perceived stress, concerns about the effects of COVID-19 on life, information search patterns and coping strategies against COVID-19. Additionally, Dr. Lieberoth established the study be completely anonymous, without registering the participants’ IP number, thus the software was run using his university's servers (Aarhus, Denmark) to comply with European and Danish laws, whom both have authorization to the ethical protocol.

It is very possible that there will be a second wave of global dissemination and that participants will be asked if they have previously responded to this study. This would provide some elements to observe the evolution of the measurements. However, since there are no individual identifiers, strict causality over time cannot be inferred (meaning, it is not a panel design study). Surely, for the second and potential subsequent disseminations, the questionnaire may change in some aspect, to focus on elements of scientific interest.

Everything found on this microsite up to April 15th, corresponds to the first wave of responses, more than 8 thousand registered responses. We will indicate when we refer to the second and subsequent waves of responses.

Instrument.

As it can be found in the ‘Design and Hypothesis’ tab, the questionnaire on this first occasion was integrated as two parts. Allowing participants to complete the first part, leaving the second part optional.

The number of evaluated variables for both parts is twenty-five, nine in the first part and the rest in the second. This included both independent and dependent variables, as well as covariates (control variables).

The questions are displayed on eight pages, in addition to the first page which welcomes the participant and a final page which thanks them.

How big is the effect of the pandemic on stress and other aspects of mental health in Mexico? On this page we will try to give punctual answers, as we generate them, using documents and images.