Covid-19 impact on well-being in the Italian context (original) (raw)

Positive Psychology, whose aim is «to understand, test, discover and promote the factors that allow individuals and communities to thrive» (Sheldon, et al. 2000), considers health not as the absence of pathologies but as the presence of positive feelings (Engel, 1977) and ties the concept to well-being and happiness. This evidences how being physically healthy is just one part of the apple and that harmony, positive feelings, happiness, satisfaction, quality of life are all part of a wider concept of well-being which is necessary for the individual to be completely healthy. The ever-worsening situation we are living nowadays-as of June 17th, Italy counts 237.500 cases of individuals infected by coronavirus since the beginning of the epidemy and the incredible amount of 34.405 deceased-obviously leads us to focus our attention on our physical health. This is demanded and crucial as far as the emergency goes on. By the way, though, any consideration in this period evidences the individuals' psychological difficulty in facing the current situation. Those who are not experiencing hospitalizations or more serious matters, live, either way, fear, anxiety, loneliness, depression due to social detachment, domestic isolation, restrictions, working difficulties, inactivity, or economic concern among others that strongly affect Italian people's living and consequently their general status of mental health. The aim of this investigation is therefore to understand how well-being in individuals varies and which are the dimensions that mostly highlight critical issues, by comparing two samples: the first one who was asked to fill in the questionnaire between April and August 2019 and the second one who will fill it during the Covid-19 emergency period.