IOSR Journal of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 26, Issue 4, Series 3 (April. 2021) 54-65 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/0837-2604035465 www.iosrjournals.org 54 |Page The Impact of the Covid19 Lockdown Measures on Mental Health and Well-Being and the role of Resilience: A Review of Studies in Cyprus. Loukia Demetriou 1 ABSTRACT The worldwide pandemic caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus is posing a drastic effect on individuals' mental and physical health. All around the world governments have implemented strict physical and social distancing measures to prevent contamination from the COVID-19 and flatten the epidemic curve. While these measures were deemed necessary by state-appointed epidemiologists, such preventive and strict actions require an evaluation of how they affect the mental health and well-being of people. The present project aims to describe the general mental health and well-being of individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. It consists of a review of the findings of four studies exploring research questions on peoples' mental health and life satisfaction, the role of psychological resilience, hope, and adaptability as protective factors for mental health during the lockdown, but also the impact of social isolation on working mothers and the anxiety and stress of university students in their efforts to adjust to distance-learning. The four studies included in this review had a total sample of 957 subjects and took place in Cyprus between April and November 2020, amidst the lockdowns. All the studies we reviewed were quantitative with the application of various instruments that assess the quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF), general health (GHQ-28), life satisfaction (LSI), stress and anxiety (BAI), psychological resiliency (CD-Risk), hope (AHS) and adaptability (CAQ). In our review, we focused on finding answers regarding the extent to which the Covid-19 lockdown measures and social isolation impacted negatively people’s quality of life and mental health, the social groups that were impacted the most from these measures but also the role of resilience as a protective process in times of the COVID19 adversity. A common aspect in the findings of all four studies was a deterioration in the mental health and quality of life of the participants. Resilience, hope and activity level were significant mediating factors in buffering the adverse impact of the lockdown and the social/physical distancing measures. KEYWORDS: Covid-19, Hope, Mental Health, Resilience, Stress, Students, Well-being --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 25-03-2021 Date of Acceptance: 09-04-2021 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. INTRODUCTION The United Nations Development Program (UNDP, 2020) declared the Covid-19 pandemic as much more than a health crisis. Under the current scenario, we face an extraordinary situation for the human beings of the 21st century. The state-imposed lockdowns, quarantines, and social/physical distancing measures have brought a sudden change in everything around us and have impacted the lives of every individual in one way or another; be it our work schedules, our social networks, our physical space, our homes, our school systems, and have led to entirely different dynamics of living. Studies show that the prolonged state-imposed strict physical distancing and lockdown measures are causing intense emotions such as sadness, loneliness, fear, sleep problems, panic attacks, severe depression, social dysfunction, and increasing anxiety in the population in all countries where they have been applied (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020; Wang et al., 2020, Rajkumar, 2020; Cao et al., 2020; Shah et al., 2020; Brooks et al., 2020). Such intense emotions prevailing over an extended period of over a year (March 2020-April 2021) can be overwhelming for various social groups. At the early phase of the outbreak of the COVID-19 in China, a survey demonstrated that 53.8% of respondents had a moderate or severe psychological response for the disease, 16.5% of the subjects stated that they had a moderate to severe level of depressive symptoms, and 28.8% of the participants reported the persistence of moderate to severe level of anxiety symptoms. Moreover, around 8.1% of respondents reported moderate to severe stress levels (Wang et al., 2020). Studies also suggested that both medical workers and the public have experienced psychological 1 Associate Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology and Social Sciences, Frederick University, Cyprus Contact email: pre.dl@frederick.ac.cy