Psychology, 2021, 12, 1141-1152
https://www.scirp.org/journal/psych
ISSN Online: 2152-7199
ISSN Print: 2152-7180
DOI: 10.4236/psych.2021.127070 Jul. 29, 2021 1141 Psychology
Effects of Home Confinement for COVID-19
on the Psychological Health and the Social
Lifestyles of the People of the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia
Wissal Boughattas
1
, Mona Tolba
2
1
Department of Sport’s Sciences, College of Education, Taif University, Taif , Saudi Arabia
2
Department of Special Education, College of Education, Taif University, Taif , Saudi Arabia
Abstract
In March 2020, the World Health Organization announced that the corona-
virus has become a global pandemic that may cause death by infection. Con-
sequently, radical measures were taken to limit the spread of this deadly virus.
Public health authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, mandated total
confinement to limit the spread of the virus. These measures have brought
about a fundamental change in people’s daily lifestyles, especially their social
lives. Consequently, home confinement has had impacts on psychological
health as well. This study aims to evaluate the effects of home confinement on
the people of various regions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; we opted for a
quantitative study design using an anonymous online survey. A total of 3589
subjects completed the “Scale of Social Lifestyle and Psychological Health for
the COVID-19 Pandemic”, which is a survey formulated for the purposes of
this research. Results showed that confinement has changed the social life-
styles of the people in KSA, particularly for women and for people aged 30 to
50 years. For psychological health, statistically significant increases were ob-
served in the levels of anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, in-
terpersonal sensitivity, and somatic symptoms, during quarantine. In conclu-
sion, home confinement caused a radical change in the social lifestyles of the
citizens of Saudi Arabia. Women, married people and those aged more than
50 years are more affected than others, the psychological impact was mod-
erate to severe in terms of the assessed demographic variables.
Keywords
COVID-19, Psychological Health, Social Lifestyle, Confinement
How to cite this paper: Boughattas, W., &
Tolba, M. (2021). Effects of Home Con-
finement for COVID-19 on the Psycholog-
ical Health and the Social Lifestyles of the
People of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Psychology, 12, 1141-1152.
https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2021.127070
Received: July 3, 2021
Accepted: July 26, 2021
Published: July 29, 2021
Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access