The consequences of the pandemic are not only limited to the economy, but also to the mental well-being of people who have to stay at home for an unknown period (Moreno et al., 2020). This background supports the suspicion that the relationship between religious affiliation and mental well-being is context dependent (Aksoy et al., 2021). This study fills the literature gap by conducting event survey and two-stage least squares (TSLS) analyzes to examine the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on mental well-being and religion in Indonesia. We construct an event analysis following the study by Brodeur, Clark, et al. 2021) to analyze the dynamic impacts of lockdown notification on mental well-being and religiosity.
We use average active cases per month as a tool for lockdowns, following the approach of Coibion et al. A previous study also finds that the COVID-19 pandemic is leading to lower household income and consumption in Indonesia (Ridhwan et al ., 2023a). In contrast, younger generations in the UK appear to be significantly impacted by lockdown policies as estimates show a significant magnitude of increased anxiety and depressive symptoms (Fancourt et al., 2021).
For example, SVIs are used to evaluate the impact of lockdowns on well-being (Brodeur, Clark, et al., 2021), examine the level of economic anxiety (Fetzer et al., 2021) and employment expectations during the pandemic (Simionescu & Raišienė, 2021). Another study uses topics and search term queries to construct a search-based unemployment index (Caperna et al., 2022). We construct an event analysis to analyze the dynamic effects of the lockdown announcement (Brodeur, Clark, et al., 2021; Silverio-Murillo et al., 2021).
The number of active cases has been used as the main indicator by health officials in different countries to decide on the lockdown policy (Coibion et al., 2020).
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS 4.1. Descriptive Statistics
Event Analysis
Note: Blue line is 2020 data and gray line is 2019 data as a hypothetical. Comparison of search terms related to mental well-being and religiosity before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparison of search terms related to mental well-being and religiosity before and after the COVID-19 pandemic (continued).
The existence of COVID-19 may have distorted people's mental well-being even before the lockdown order was announced. This can be seen in the increase in index scores for all mental well-being keywords, especially insomnia and panic, which show significant increases after the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020. After closing, the order is announced, some keyword search indexes, e.g. sleeplessness, hopelessness and prayer are increasing.
The finding of this study shows that the adverse impact is most evident in the keyword sadness in Western European and American samples. Note: Duration of the effects of the stay-at-home and lockdown announcement on keywords related to mental well-being and religiosity. The two months before the stay-at-home and lockdown announcement (in 2019 or 2020) is the reference period when the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
The models include dummies from three months before to five months after the stay-at-home and shutdown announcement. Check: year and month fixed effects as well as one-day lagged number of new deaths from COVID-19. Our results showed that staying at home due to the lockdown may have worsened people's mental health.
The study of Bentzen (2021) suggests that global religiosity has grown as an outgrowth of the pandemic.
Two-Stage Least Squares (TSLS) Results
When we estimate the heterogeneous effects of containment policies on mental well-being and religiosity, we find that regions with a lower share of Muslims experience worse mental well-being (see Table A.2 in the Appendix). In terms of significance and magnitude, the impacts are more noticeable in regions with a lower percentage of Muslim populations (or a higher percentage of non-Muslims than the minority religious group). From these results we can confirm that the impact of containment is proportional to the density of certain groups in a population (Shadmi et al., 2020).
As the largest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia is a religiously diverse country and prides itself on religious tolerance. Several studies also document that some racial/ethnic minority groups are associated with poorer mental health (eg, depression and anxiety) during the pandemic due to discrimination and minority stress (Jaspal & Lopes, 2021; Nguyen et al., 2022; Zhou et al. ., 2021). More than half of the Muslim followers in Indonesia come from the island of Java.13 According to the 2010 Indonesian Census, the population of Indonesia.
The dependent variable here is the search volume index of the selected search terms related to spiritual well-being and religiosity. They are responsible for 56% of the Indonesian population.14 In a collective way, the Javanese hold strong cultural values and norms beliefs that play an important role in cultural communities (Rahiem & Rahim, 2021). These cultural values and norms encourage social relations, collective cognition and behavioral equality, which can lead to the development of social capital (Herdaetha et al find that the interaction between social capital and Javanese cultural values positively affects mental health status.
In addition, Rahiem & Rahim (2021) suggest that the involvement of cultural figures in the COVID-19 crisis response should take into account the cultural context of the population. Interestingly, when we estimate the heterogeneous effects based on the percentage of the Muslim population, we also find that the coefficients for search volume index prayer are higher in regions with a low percentage of the majority group, those experiencing high levels of insomnia, hopelessness and anxiety . Furthermore, we also provide the heterogeneous religiosity effects of the lockdown policy on mental well-being and religiosity (see Table A.3 in the Appendix). From the results, it can be deduced that regions with fewer mosques suffer from greater mental disorders. The results are particularly evident in the estimated effects on anxiety, panic and prayer. Due to the restrictive policy, people can hardly go to public services because it is forbidden to do so. Therefore, people living in the areas where the mosques are less in number will be more limited to pray. Although prayers can be performed at home, places of worship can increase resilience in religiously affiliated people, as evidenced in a study by Schwalm et al. 2022), who finds a moderately positive correlation between religion and resilience.
This may explain why people living in regions with less glass experience higher mental distortions. As an alternative independent variable, we use the length of days of confinement and estimate its effect on mental well-being and religiosity (see Table A.6 in the Appendix). This implies that our model is robust in estimating the relationship between COVID-19 and mental well-being and religion in Indonesia.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Our study examining the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on mental health and religion has important policy implications. Therefore, providing access to information, developing a guidebook that sheds light on where to seek help, and increasing the number of mental health facilities can help reduce the harmful effects on mental health of the COVID-19 pandemic and events. similar negative in the future. In particular, when various countries, including Indonesia, are experiencing several waves of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the mutation of the virus.
Policy austerity and mental health during the covid-19 pandemic: a longitudinal analysis of data from 15 countries. Consequences of the lockdown during the covid-19 pandemic on the lifestyle and emotional state of children in Argentina. Discrimination and mental health outcomes in British black and South Asian people during the UK covid-19 outbreak.
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The Covid-19 resource center is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information. The Mental Health Impact of Racial and Ethnic Covid-19 Discrimination Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Impact of the heterogeneity of the COVID-19 lockdown on mental health and religion-related conditions based on a population share of the majority religious group.
Heterogeneity impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on mental health and religion-related terms based on mosque proportion. Heterogeneity impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on mental health and religion-related terms based on proportion of mosques (Continued).
