hope amidst pandemic essay

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COVID-19: A reminder of the power of hope and solidarity

May 5, 2020.

Ulrika Modéer

UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy, UNDP

Co-Founder, Heart17

The novel coronavirus pandemic can be the moment the world pushes back against fear and isolationism, and turns instead towards hope, solidarity and a shared sense of global community.

These are fearful times, to be sure. Some 3.55 million people have been infected by COVID-19 and nearly a quarter of a million have perished. Billions of people are on lockdown or in self isolation.

Yet this pandemic and the fear, dread, and anxiety that it has induced has not occurred in isolation. For years, we have existed under the constant and pervasive feeling that things are getting worse, that we are failing each other and that we are failing our planet. This isn’t helped by a daily news cycle that reads like an ever-escalating drumbeat of anxiety. Climate change, war and conflict, isolationism and trade wars; our world, at times, feels dark and lonely, and this despite the many, many positive news stories that exist but that rarely get attention.

Global togetherness

No one doubts that COVID-19 is one of the most dire threats the world has ever faced. And yet, amidst the confusion and anxiety, there are ever stronger signs of hope and solidarity, a sense of, and desire for, togetherness.

It is this spirit of global togetherness that gives us hope. In this time of crisis, we are all neighbours in the world, and success will only be achieved when all people, in all countries, are protected.

Thankfully, this shared sense of responsibility has seen a world come together in ways that we have not seen for some time, and the examples are everywhere.

In the U.K., an army of volunteers has come forth to support their neighbors. As stated in the New York Times , “When the government appealed recently for 250,000 people to help the National Health Service, more than 750,000 signed up. It was forced to temporarily stop taking applicants so it could process the flood.”

In Somalia, where health infrastructure and traditional media have suffered under decades of strife, local storytellers are being equipped with the skills and tools to reach remote communities and educate them on best practices against COVID-19. The initiative is a collaboration between UNDP Somalia ’s  Accelerator Lab  and experts from Australia’s Queensland University and  Digital Storytellers .

And, as pointed out by Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Youth Envoy, young people from Syria to Peru to South Sudan are helping to tackle misinformation, raise community awareness and support the elderly.

Such examples are spreading like wildfire as people seek out a light at the end of the tunnel and work to show, to each other, that we all stand together. We see this in the towns and cities around the globe where citizens are painting hearts on windows, where crowds cheer for healthcare workers, and where everyday people perform songs on social media to help lift spirits.

Leaning into hope

Without ignoring the realities we face, it is clear that the world is reaching for a positive message. These words were echoed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to world leaders, as he emphasized the need for solidarity and global cooperation .

His call has resonated. Long sought-after partnerships with private sector companies are suddenly coming to fruition as everyone steps up to pitch in. UNDP has recently partnered with Variety on a global ad campaign. And UNDP’s new partnership with Heart17, a global initiative using creativity and innovation to accelerate the SDGs and light a spark of hope among the young generation, has brought together major players within fashion and popular culture, such as H&M Group and Spotify, to share their media space for messages around health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Certainly there will be many lessons learned once COVID-19 has passed, and UNDP’s Accelerator Labs has assessed some of the post-COVID-19 trends they see emerging. A key takeaway is this: COVID-19 has been a sort of reset across societies, across sectors. From telecommuting for work or school, to supply chain management, to support for health systems, and small and medium enterprises, to mental health support across borders or simply across the street, COVID-19 has forced us to look at how we work as a species on this planet.

Amidst the pain that we continue to endure, we should find comfort in the stories of hope and solidarity, and continue to see the value in the positive, encouraging lessons that are emerging for our post-COVID world.

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Holding on to hope is hard, even with the pandemic’s end in sight – wisdom from poets through the ages

Professor of English, Rutgers University - Newark

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Rachel Hadas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Rutgers University - Newark provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation US.

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As we begin to glimpse what might be the beginning of the end of the pandemic, what does hope mean? It’s hard not to sense the presence of hope, but how do we think of it?

Hope is fragile but tough, fugitive but tenacious, even adhesive. It sticks: Hope “ stayed behind/in her impregnable home beneath the lip/of the jar ,” wrote the ancient Greek poet Hesiod in his poem “Works and Days.” While the evils released from the jar by Pandora fly out into the world, hope remains.

Written in the 19th century, poet Emily Dickinson’s version of hope is “the thing with feathers” that “perches in the soul” and perseveres; it sings “and never stops at all.” Dickinson invites us to imagine Hope frail as a bird, fluttering. It doesn’t fly away – but that verb “perches,” suggesting that it always might.

That Dickinson’s hope “sings the tune without the words” might suggest that hope provides a general, even generic response rather than a specific remedy tailored to the occasion. Nevertheless, even in the sorest storms, hope is available.

Which isn’t to say that hope is always consoling. When we turn to hope, have recourse to hope or even hope against hope, it isn’t at moments of triumph or complacency. Rather, we need hope at moments when things feel precarious.

Once we recognize this simple principle, the intuitive truth that hope is a companion of anxiety turns up everywhere.

‘Intrinsically intertwined’

In 2018, the Rubin Museum in New York City mounted a participatory art installation entitled “ A Monument for the Anxious and Hopeful .” Artist Candy Chang and writer James A. Reeves asked “ visitors to anonymously write their anxieties and hopes on vellum cards and display them on a 30’ x 15’ wall for others to see .”

Tracy A. Dennis-Tiwary , a psychology and neuroscience scholar, notes that over 50,000 cards were submitted . The cards, writes Dennis-Tiwary, “reflected … immense optimism and fear. … It was not obvious unless you looked closely, but the juxtaposition of the two card types revealed a pattern: the anxieties and hopes were often the same. … The monument showed how anxiety and hope go hand in hand.”

Chang and Reeves write that “Anxiety and hope are defined by a moment that has yet to arrive.” Put another way, writes Dennis-Tiwary, “when we imagine and prepare for the uncertain future, anxiety and hope are intrinsically intertwined, forever transforming from one to another.”

Leaving despair behind

The Athenian dramatist Euripides was a peerless psychologist with a particular interest in the stresses of decision-making. His play, “ Iphigenia among the Taurians ,” is less a tragedy than a melodrama or romance, with a happy ending against the odds.

In the following passage, the resourceful Iphigenia – a priestess whose job it is to sacrifice foreigners who land on the shores of her captor’s island – is devising a complicated strategy to free at least one of her prisoners and thereby send a message to her family back home. She’s unaware, at this point in the drama, that one of the captives whom she’s supposed to sacrifice is her own brother Orestes. She has thought of a clever scheme, but the hope engendered by it, the very possibility of its success, also makes her anxious. Here’s my translation:

“People in trouble do not have a prayer of calm once they have left behind despair and turned toward hope.”

As with the plot of any exciting movie, we’re rooting for the good guys, and our hope is balanced by uneasiness. Suspense!

Iphigenia’s next words to Orestes are also acute:

“So this is what I fear: that you, once you have sailed away from here, will forget about me, will ignore my heart’s desire.”

Will the lucky winners, the survivors, forget about those who, having perhaps enabled them to escape, have been left behind?

This is Iphigenia’s entirely reasonable worry. Even the hoped-for and possible success of her scheme may have a downside. As Chang, Reeves and Dennis-Tiwary all point out, hope and anxiety are so closely intertwined that they may turn out to be different sides of the same coin.

‘Green shoots of hope’

Only two months after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and less than two months after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, hope is palpable; so is anxiety.

A year into the pandemic, spring is about to arrive. A recent New Yorker article notes that “ here in the city there are green shoots … who can’t imagine that happier days may soon be here again ?” The word hope isn’t mentioned, but a hopeful aura pervades the passage.

Yet nothing is certain. Trump and Trumpism glower in the wings and also in the political arena. New viral variants abound. There may be a light at the end of the tunnel, no doubt – but how long will that tunnel be? Hope requires patience.

In a famous passage in Plato’s “Republic ,” Socrates evokes the limitations of human vision by using the allegory of an underground cave whose inhabitants have never seen the daylight. The passage never mentions hope, but it does mention the reluctance of the prisoners, whose lives have been spent underground, to be dragged into the light, which dazzles their eyes.

Hope doesn’t go away, but it morphs and mutates. Have we become habituated to despair?

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Perspective and Hope in the Era of COVID-19

Close your eyes and think of someone you're protecting and someone you'll hug when the pandemic is over

Duke Global Health Institute psychologist Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell explores behaviors, hope and connectedness in her video.

By Mary Brophy Marcus

Published April 17, 2020, last updated on August 4, 2020 under Voices of DGHI

Seeking to find and share hope during a difficult time, DGHI psychologist Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell recently made a video to share with others who are staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Watch her video and read a few of her insights in her Q&A.

Why did you make a video?

As the far-reaching effects of COVID-19 became apparent, I began to hunger for hope. Where does hope come from? How do we stay hopeful? As a researcher who studies positive mental health, I knew hope had been studied, and I wanted to apply that knowledge to our current situation, for myself as much as anyone else.

What's a key message you really want people to know?

Staying home during COVID-19 is a significant and brave action. It's not inaction.

Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell shares an...

What’s something you discovered along the way that surprised you?

That what we’re living through today is a human experience. I suddenly feel very connected to my ancestors. Viruses are ancient, and while this situation feels new and unknown to me, it actually isn’t new and it isn’t unknown. People have responded to epidemics for centuries.

Who should watch this video?

A lot of us are gathering over Zoom these days, often just for an unstructured check-in (Check out this example from Duke University ). I’d love it if people watched this video together. The four-minute hope exercise at the end is more powerful if done together. This video may provide a peaceful way to end a virtual check-in.

Is there anything that weighs on your mind that you didn’t have the chance to address in your video?

So many people are losing their jobs and I’m deeply worried about the impact of such financial stress. I suggest in this video that people stay strong and stay home, and yet we all have to earn money somehow. In addition to keeping perspective and hope, I think the public health community needs to address economics, too.

• Mental health
• United States
• Rae Jean Proeschold-Bell

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Hope and resilience during a pandemic among three cultural groups in israel: the second wave of covid-19.

• 1 Conflict Management & Resolution Program, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
• 2 Department of Public Policy & Management, Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

The aim of this study was to explore the coping resources of hope and sense of coherence, which are rooted in positive-psychology theory, as potential resilience factors that might reduce the emotional distress experienced by adults from three cultural groups in Israel during the chronic-stress situation of a pandemic. The three cultural groups examined were secular Jews, Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Arabs. We compared these cultural groups during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, just before the Jewish New Year (mid-September 2020) as a second lockdown was announced. Data were gathered from 248 secular Jews, 243 Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and 203 Arabs, who were 18–70 years old ( M = 37.14, SD = 12.62). The participants filled out self-reported questionnaires including the Brief Symptom Inventory as a measure of emotional/psychological distress (i.e., somatization, depression, and anxiety) and questionnaires about sense of coherence and different types of hope (i.e., intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal) as measures of coping resources and resiliency. Differences were found between the three groups in terms of several variables. The Arab participants reported the highest levels of emotional distress and the lowest levels of interpersonal and transpersonal hope; whereas the Ultra-Orthodox participants revealed the highest levels of sense of coherence and other resilience factors. A structural equation model revealed that, in addition to the sociodemographic factors, only sense of coherence and intrapersonal hope played significant roles in explaining emotional distress, explaining 60% of the reported distress among secular Jews, 41% among Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and 48% among Arabs. We discuss our findings in light of the salutogenic and hope theories. We will also discuss their relevancy to meaning-seeking and self-transcendence theory in the three cultural groups.

Introduction

The Covid-19 pandemic has led governments of many countries around the world to impose lockdowns that have lasted several weeks to several months. In Israel, the first lockdown lasted from March to May 2020. Once Israel got out of the first lockdown, the feeling among citizens was that normal life had returned. Requests from the government to minimize gatherings were not enforced and schools were opened, with students in isolated groups (capsules), at the beginning of September. Thus, by mid-September, a second wave had arrived and, just before the Jewish New Year, the government announced a second lockdown, with restrictions that were more severe than those imposed during the first wave of the epidemic.

Against the backdrop of the second wave and the second lockdown, the present study aimed to assess two main resources, hope and sense of coherence (SOC), as potential resiliency factors capable of reducing three common emotional problems (i.e., somatization, anxiety, and depression) during this difficult period. Based on the hope theory of Snyder (2000) and salutogenic theory ( Antonovsky, 1987 ), which are inherently related to the concepts of meaning-seeking and self-transcendence, we wanted to examine the above-mentioned resiliency factors and emotional-distress variables among three main cultural groups in Israel: secular Jews, Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Arabs. We sought to explore similarities and differences among these groups, in terms of the different variables as well as the ways in which resiliency factors explain emotional distress under the conditions of chronic stress imposed by an ongoing epidemic.

Hope for the future enables effective coping with developmental challenges. It elaborates options for individuals and helps them to examine sources of personal strength by relating to the future and not only relying on the past ( Sharabi et al., 2012 ). Several researchers have tried to define hope and have emphasized different components of this construct. Snyder (2002) offered a definition in which hope combines individual perceptions, in order to generate alternative ways to achieve desirable goals. Others have suggested that hope is a personal resource that can be developed and fostered and which is essential for coping, success, and decision-making.

Researchers have agreed that hope involves emotional elements of expectation, as well as cognitive and deductive thinking to pursue new ideas and solutions ( Lazarus, 1991 ; Snyder, 1994 ). Hope is seen by some researchers as a positive attitude toward life and the ability to have optimistic views ( Moorey and Greer, 1989 ; Strang and Strang, 2001 ; Sawatzky et al., 2009 ). Hope is based on high-level cognitive processing, which requires mental representations of positively valued, abstract future situations. More specifically, it requires setting goals, planning how to achieve those goals, and the use of imagery and creativity, cognitive flexibility, mental exploration of novel situations, and even risk-taking ( Lazarus, 1991 ; Snyder, 1994 , 2000 ). The affective component of hope is considered to be a consequence of cognitive elements and may contain positive, as well as negative features since individuals may realize that the achievement of their goal may involve struggles, costs, and endurance ( Snyder, 1994 , 2000 ). It seems that the emotional element of hope is rooted in early experiences of trust, which are influenced by others and by external events ( Erikson et al., 1994 ).

While Snyder (1994 , 2000) emphasized the cognitive component of hope, Jacoby and Goldzweig (2014) elaborated on Snyder's concept of hope and identified three sub-concepts that emphasize the emotional components of hope, in addition to the cognitive component. In their view, the term intrapersonal hope refers to hope in which a person looks into him/herself while assessing his/her resources. Interpersonal hope refers to the relationships one has with different significant and meaningful individuals in whom one can trust. Transpersonal hope refers to hope that relies on supernatural powers and which gives an individual a sense of meaning and purpose ( Jacoby and Goldzweig, 2014 ). The representation of hope in this way is connected to the concept of self-transcendence, which also represents consciousness that is related to various sources from one's internal self to one's environment and broadening to include the cosmos ( Wong, 2016 ).

In the current study, we evaluated the three components of hope as resiliency factors that might be involved in reducing psychological/emotional distress. Indeed, one recent study has shown that hope, defined as expectation from the future, leads to positive outcomes even during a pandemic, meaning that a sense of leading a meaningful life mediates the role of basic health in predicting stress resulting from Covid-19 ( Trzebiński et al., 2020 ; Walsh, 2020 ; Yildirim and Arslan, 2020 ).

Salutogenesis and Sense of Coherence

Antonovsky (1979) proposed the conceptualization and model of salutogenesis , which means the “origin of health,” in the stress and health field. Rather than classifying health/illness dichotomously, this continuum model suggests that each individual is somewhere on the ease/dis-ease continuum at any given moment ( Antonovsky, 1987 ). According to this model, people have general resistance resources that can help them to conceptualize the world as organized and understandable. SOC represents the motivation and the internal and external resources one can use to cope with stressors and plays an important role in the way one perceives challenges throughout life. SOC is a global orientation to see the world as more or less comprehensible (the internal and the external world are perceived as rational, understandable, consistent, and expected), manageable (the individual believes that s/he has the necessary resources available to deal with situations), and meaningful (the motivation to cope and the commitment to emotionally invest in the coping process; Antonovsky, 1987 ). Both the cognitive aspects of SOC and the emotional-motivational aspects reflect major components of the concept of self-transcendence. In the self-transcendence process, it is claimed that cognitive restructuring processes lead to choices and outcomes ( Wong, 2016 ), which can also be viewed as indicative of comprehensibility and manageability. Additionally, an inherent tendency to move beyond one's own self-interest and become aware of sources of purpose ( Wong, 2016 ) can be viewed in light of the salutogenic concept of meaningfulness.

The salutogenic model suggests that an individual with a strong SOC is less likely than one with a weak SOC to perceive many stressful situations as threatening and, therefore, anxiety-provoking. Given their tendency to perceive the world as meaningful and manageable, individuals with a strong SOC will be less likely to feel threatened by stressful events, including a pandemic, and, therefore, will be less vulnerable to developing psychological distress in such a situation ( Gómez-Salgado et al., 2020 ; Ruiz-Frutos et al., 2020 ; Schäfer et al., 2020 ).

Research in the stress literature dealing with the concept of SOC and its application to mental-health problems has differentiated between acute stress and chronic stress. It has been argued that the resource of SOC is more influential and plays a powerful role in reducing stress in the context of chronic stress, as opposed to acute stress ( Sagy and Braun-Lewensohn, 2009 ). In the present study, we suggest that the situation we are examining is a chronic-stress situation, as the pandemic has been with us since February–March of 2019.

Psychological Distress in a Chronic-Stress Situation

Stress encompasses cognitive, emotional, physical/somatic, and social variables ( Lazarus and Folkman, 1984 ). Research conducted during normal times among a representative sample of Israeli adults to identify baseline levels of various psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, and somatization found very low levels of each of those problems ( Gilbar and Ben-Zur, 2002 ). However, research conducted during various stressful situations has shown that individuals who are exposed to stressful situations, including a pandemic, tend to be especially vulnerable to developing common psychological problems, including somatization, anxiety, and depression. More specifically, the lockdowns and curfews that were implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic influenced psychological problems and distress, including anxiety and depression, as noted in several recent studies ( Hossain et al., 2020 ; Lei et al., 2020 ).

Demographic Characteristics

In various contexts and countries, the resiliency factors of SOC and hope have been analyzed with regard to gender and no significant gender differences have been found for either variable ( Roothman et al., 2003 ; Maree et al., 2008 ; Van Schalkwyk and Rothmann, 2008 ; Braun-Lewensohn and Mosseri Rubin, 2014 ). In general ( Nolen-Hoeksema, 2001 ; Gronning et al., 2018 ), and during the COVID-19 pandemic specifically, women have been shown to be more likely to develop psychological problems and distress, including anxiety, depression, and somatization ( Liu et al., 2020 ; Sfendla and Hadrya, 2020 ).

Antonovsky (1987) claimed that SOC continues to develop until the age of 30, at which point it stabilizes. However, several studies from the last decade have claimed that SOC continues to develop and strengthen during adulthood (beyond age 30) and declines as individuals approach old age ( Nilsson et al., 2010 ; Braun-Lewensohn and Sagy, 2014 ). Similarly, the hope construct is strengthened during adulthood and weakens in old age ( Bailey and Snyder, 2007 ).

As for the outcome variables of psychological distress, several studies have suggested that during stressful events younger adults are more exposed to social media and news, which results in more anxiety, depression, and somatization. This has also been found in the context of the current pandemic ( Qiu et al., 2020 ; Sfendla and Hadrya, 2020 ).

Socio-Economic Status (SES)

SES is among the general resiliency resources that Antonovsky (1987) suggested are important for the development of a strong SOC. Indeed, several studies have demonstrated that the higher individuals' socio-economic status, including education and income, the stronger their SOC ( Volanen et al., 2004 ). Similarly, low SES was found to be associated with lower levels of hope; whereas high SES was found to be associated with higher levels of hope ( Snyder, 2002 ). Finally, low-SES individuals have been found to report more psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, and somatization, as compared to their high-SES counterparts ( De Mello et al., 2013 ) also during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Patel et al., 2020 ).

Cultural Groups Examined in This Study

Israeli jews.

Diversity in Israel includes not only the variety of ethnicities that constitute the country's overall population, but also the cultural variety within the Jewish majority, a significant proportion of which (more than 30%) is made up of immigrants. A third of the Jewish population defines itself religiously as “traditional”; whereas another third defines itself as “religious,” or “very religious” ( Bistrov and Sofer, 2010 ). Overall, Jewish Israeli society is considered a Western, individualistic society ( Sagy et al., 2001 ).

Ultra-Orthodox Society

The population of Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel numbers about 1,125,000, accounting for ~12.5% of the country's population ( Cahaner and Malach, 2019 ). They represent a significant minority group in Israeli society. The Ultra-Orthodox do not differ from the majority group in terms of race or nationality, but are separated by ideological, religious, and social motivations, which unite them ( Brown, 2017 ). Researchers of Ultra-Orthodox society usually divide this sector into three main groups: Hasidic, Lithuanian ( Misnagdim ), and Mizrahi ( Brown, 2017 ). However, in a general sense, when relating to these three groups, we may point to two characteristics common to all of them: Torah study as a constitutive value and social isolation. These two values are central to these communities. However, in recent years, social and economic changes have stretched the boundaries of Ultra-Orthodox communities and the effects of these changes are still unfolding ( Braun-Lewensohn and Kalagy, 2019 ).

The Ultra-Orthodox community can be characterized as a religious collectivist community, with very high levels of social capital relative to other populations in Israeli society. Consequently, the Ultra-Orthodox individual is surrounded by three concentric groups: the family, the community, and the public. These three circles provide members of the Ultra-Orthodox community with physical and spiritual support, alongside demands for the normative behavior accepted in the community ( Bart and Ben-Ari, 2015 ). The social capital of this community has been written about in the research literature in the contexts of health and mental well-being. Tchernichovsky and Sharoni (2015) found that the health of the Ultra-Orthodox population is better than would be expected based on their socio-economic status. Among this population, social capital affects health mainly through psychosocial support, including community aid, which reduces mental stress. This is despite the fact that it does not seem that this population has any greater access to medical services or organizations, as compared to other groups in Israel ( Tchernichovsky and Sharoni, 2015 ).

Arabs in Israel

The Arab minority comprises about 21% of the entire Israeli population and includes Muslims (83%), Christians (9%), and Druze (8%; Gharrah, 2012 ; Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), 2020 ). Arab society is highly collectivistic-patriarchal, although it is currently undergoing a rapid process of transition ( Al-Haj, 1988 ; Haj Yahia-Abu Ahmad, 2006 ; Azaiza, 2013 ). In this context, inequalities based on gender and age (and, in recent years, also education) are very common ( Al-Haj, 1988 ; Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005 ). This minority society differs from Jewish Israeli society in that it is less individualistic and more authoritarian and in its emphasis on connectedness and social relationships with meaningful others in one's social environment ( Haj Yahia, 2019 ). Arabs also differ from the Jewish majority in terms of language, religion, and other cultural factors ( Al-Krenawi et al., 2009 ). Arabs in Israel are a largely disadvantaged minority with major determinants of mental-health problems, including political, social, cultural, and economic factors ( Abu-Kaf, 2019 ). The Arab minority is subject to various forms of discrimination that may contribute to social and economic disparities between them and the Jewish majority ( Ghanem, 2001 ; Okun and Friedlander, 2005 ; Pinson, 2007 ; Yiftachel, 2009 ; Knesset Research and Information Center, 2016 ). The Arab community suffers from poverty, harsh living conditions, violence, discrimination and stigma, and poor employment and working conditions ( Keinan and Bar, 2007 ; The Galilee Society-The Arab National Society for Health Research and Services, 2013 ; Central Bureau of Statistics, 2015 ; Knesset Research and Information Center, 2015 ).

The above-mentioned cultural groups have been examined in various studies with regard to the variables examined the present study. Due to numerous SES factors, in addition to their national status, Arabs in Israel have been found to suffer from more psychological problems and distress (e.g., depression, somatization, and anxiety) than their Jewish counterparts ( Haberfeld and Cohen, 2007 ; Baron-Epel et al., 2010 ; Abu-Kaf, 2019 ). As for the other variables, it has been found that Ultra-Orthodox individuals express the strongest SOC, followed by secular Jews, and then Israeli Arabs (e.g., Abu-Kaf et al., 2017 ; Kalagy et al., 2017 ). The picture is more complicated when comparing secular Jews and Bedouin Arabs in terms of various factors of hope. In a previous study, Bedouin Arabs reported stronger collective hope than Secular Jews, but no differences were found between those two groups in terms of individual hope. As for the explanation of numerous psychological problems by SOC and hope, while SOC was found to be the strongest predictor of a lack of psychological symptoms among Jews, hope was found to be the strongest among Arabs ( Braun-Lewensohn and Sagy, 2010 ).

In this study, we sought to explore the prevalence of the major resiliency factors of SOC and hope, as well as psychological distress (in terms of anxiety, depression, and somatization) among three cultural groups in Israel (i.e., secular Jews, Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Arabs). We compared these variables among these groups and estimated the contributions of the resiliency factors to the explanation of the reported psychological distress. We further evaluated the roles of the sociodemographic variables of gender, age, and SES in explaining psychological distress during the long-term Covid-19 pandemic. Based on the salutogenic model ( Antonovsky, 1987 ) and the hope theory ( Snyder, 2000 ), we hypothesized that individuals with strong SOC and high levels of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal hope would be more resilient and, therefore, would react with less anxiety, depression, and somatization ( Gómez-Salgado et al., 2020 ; Trzebiński et al., 2020 ). We further hypothesized that women, low-SES individuals, and older individuals would be more vulnerable during the pandemic and that those factors would contribute to higher levels of stress ( De Mello et al., 2013 ; Sfendla and Hadrya, 2020 ).

Materials and Methods

Participants.

Data were gathered from 248 secular Jews (Age: M = 39.76, SD = 13.58), 243 Ultra-Orthodox Jews (Age: M = 37.50, SD = 12.70), and 203 Arabs (Age: M = 33.95, SD = 10.46), who were all 18–70 years old ( F = 12.50, p < 0.001). Women accounted for 50.4% of the secular group ( n = 113), 53.4% of the Ultra-Orthodox group ( n = 118), and 57.9% of the Arab group ( n = 106; χ 2 = 2.22, p = 0.32). SES was evaluated in terms of three levels: below-average salary, average salary, and above-average salary. In our sample, a below-average salary was reported by 118 (52.7%) of the secular participants, 147 (66.5%) of the Ultra-Orthodox participants, and 126 (68.9%) of the Arab participants. An average salary was reported by 55 (24.6%) of the secular participants, 37 (16.7%) of the Ultra-Orthodox participants, and 32 (17.5%) of the Arab participants. An above-average salary was reported by 51 (22.8%) of the secular participants, 37 (16.7%) of the Ultra-Orthodox participants, and 25 (13.7%) of the Arab participants (χ 2 = 14.27, p < 0.01).

All of the ethical guidelines applicable to this study were followed. The study was approved by the Human Subjects Ethics Committee of the Conflict Management and Resolution Program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Approved Ethics Form No. 2020-008). Participants completed self-report questionnaires in mid-September 2020, just before the Jewish New Year, as a second curfew was being announced and after ~6 months of the Covid-19 pandemic. The participants were recruited by the midgam panel ( https://www.midgampanel.com/ ) and were informed that the researchers were interested in their experiences. They were also informed that their participation was voluntary and anonymous and that they were free to withdraw their participation for any reason at any time during the questionnaire procedure.

Demographics

Participants were asked to report their gender, age, and SES. SES was measured by one question in which participants were presented the average salary in Israel and had to report whether they earn below the Israeli average salary, average salary or above the Israeli average salary.

We used the 18-item, short version of a hope questionnaire ( Jacoby and Goldzweig, 2014 ). Each item was scored on a Likert scale ranging from 1 ( do not agree at all ) to 4 ( totally agree ). In addition to a global scale of hope, this questionnaire included three subscales: interpersonal hope (five items; i.e., I draw strength from the relationships in my life ), intrapersonal hope (nine items; i.e., At difficult times in my life, I trust myself that I will be able to get out of the difficult situation ), and transpersonal hope (four items; i.e., I have a belief that gives me a sense of comfort ). In the present study, the mean of the relevant items was computed for each subscale. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was α = 0.88 for both the intrapersonal scale and the transpersonal scale. For the interpersonal scale, it was α = 0.83.

Sense of Coherence (SOC)

SOC was measured using an instrument ( Antonovsky, 1987 ) that included a series of items scored on a 7-point Likert-type scale that had anchoring phrases at each end. High scores indicate a strong SOC. An account of the development of the SOC scale and its psychometric properties, showing it to be reliable and reasonably valid, appears in Antonovsky (1987 , 1993) writings. In this study, SOC was measured using the short-form scale consisting of 13 items, which has been found to be highly correlated to the original long version ( Antonovsky, 1993 ). The scale includes items such as: “ Doing the things you do every day is ” with answers ranging from 1 ( a source of pain and boredom ) to 7 ( a source of deep pleasure and satisfaction ). In the present study, the mean was calculated and Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the scale was 0.82.

We used the short version of the Brief Symptom Inventory ( Derogatis and Fitzpatrick, 2004 ), which is comprised of 18 items that are each rated on a 5-point Likert scale (0 – not at all ; 4 – very much ). This questionnaire examines three areas of psychological and psychiatric problems: somatization, depression, and anxiety. The reliability of the short version of the questionnaire and its three subscales has been reported to be good ( Franke et al., 2017 ). Here are examples of items from each subscale. Somatization: “ To what extent have you felt faint or experienced dizziness?” Anxiety: “ To what extent have you suffered from a feeling of stress?” Depression: “ To what extent have you suffered from a feeling of depression?” The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for each of the stress indices (i.e., anxiety, depression, and somatization) and for the global severity index were all α = 0.88.

Statistical Analyses

To address our first objective, frequencies and standard deviations of each variable were computed. The second objective related to the comparison of the three cultural groups and One-way ANOVA was conducted. Finally, to evaluate the model in which the sociodemographic factors of gender, age, and SES and the resiliency factors of SOC and the three dimensions of hope explain the psychological/emotional distress (i.e., anxiety somatization, and depression) in each group, structural equation modeling was conducted using the AMOS 26 program ( Arbuckle and Wothke, 1999 ).

For most of the stress indices, our results were higher than the community adult Israeli norms ( Gilbar and Ben-Zur, 2002 ). The average scores for all of the resiliency factors, namely, SOC and the various hope scales, were also at the upper end of the scales ( Table 1 ).

Table 1 . Means and SD s of the psychological-distress variables measured in this study, as compared to Israeli norms.

Significant differences were found among all of the examined variables (see Table 2 ). The most prevalent differences were found between the Ultra-Orthodox group and the other two groups. In all cases, the Ultra-Orthodox group reported higher levels of resiliency factors and lower levels of psychological distress. Differences were also found between secular Jews and Arabs in two of the three hope scales. Secular Jews reported higher levels of interpersonal hope; whereas Arabs reported higher levels of transpersonal hope. As for psychological distress, a significant difference was found only for somatization, with the Arab group reporting more somatization than the secular group.

Table 2 . Differences between the groups in terms of the main variables.

We used multi-group analysis to compare the effects of the different resiliency factors among each group (i.e., secular Jews, Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Arabs). The mean for each scale was computed separately and used as a manifest variable. For psychological distress (the dependent variable), a latent variable was created using the three dimensions of stress reactions as indicators (i.e., somatization, depression, and anxiety). Model fit was assessed using the ratio of chi-square to degrees of freedom (χ 2 / df ) incremental fit index (IFI; Bollen, 1989 ), the comparative fit index (CFI; Bentler, 1990 ), and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA; Browne and Cudeck, 1993 ). Acceptable fit is indicated by a χ 2 /df ratio of 3 or less ( Carmines and McIver, 1981 ), IFI and CFI equal to or >0.90, and RMSEA of <0.08 ( Browne and Cudeck, 1993 ; Hoyle, 1995 ). The indices were adequate for the overall model: χ ( 54 ) 2 = 137.29, p < 0.001; χ 2 / df = 2.86; CFI = 0.95; IFI = 0.95; and RMSEA = 0.05 ( Figures 1 – 3 ).

Figure 1 . The roles of sociodemographic and resiliency factors in explaining psychological distress: Results of the path analysis for secular Jews. *** p < 0.001. SES, Socio-Economic Status.

Figure 2 . The roles of sociodemographic and resiliency factors in explaining psychological distress: Results of the path analysis for Ultra-Orthodox Jews. * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001. SES, Socio-Economic Status.

Figure 3 . The role of sociodemographic and resiliency factors in explaining psychological distress: Results of the path analysis for Arabs. ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001. SES, Socio-Economic Status.

The final SEM, presents only significant relationships, as variables that were not significant for the explanation of the stress indices were deleted from the final model. The overall model explained 60% of the variance in psychological distress among the secular Jews, 41% of the variance among the Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and 48% of the variance among the Arabs. The indirect effects of the various variables on psychological distress were as follows. Secular Jews : SES (−0.14), age (−0.18), SOC (−0.13); Ultra-Orthodox: SES (−0.12), age (−0.02), SOC (−0.12); and Arabs: SES (−0.07), age (−0.08), SOC (−0.09).

It is important to note that, as for the socio-demographic factors, it is clear that being a women in the secular group had a powerful and significant effect on the development of the examined forms of psychological distress, while it had less of an effect in the Ultra-Orthodox group and no effect in the Arab group. Age also had different effects on psychological distress. In terms of the total direct and indirect effect, age seemed to have the most powerful effect in the secular group (−0.25), followed by the Arab group (−0.18), and, to a lesser extent, in the Ultra-Orthodox group (−0.14); with younger individuals experiencing greater psychological distress. Lastly, SES was also most powerful among the secular group with a total effect (direct and indirect) of −0.14, less powerful among the Ultra-Orthodox group (−0.12), and least powerful among the Arab group (−0.07).

These results indicate that, in all three groups, the resiliency factors were the most prominent in their contributions to the explanation of the psychological distress, with SOC having the strongest effect [secular Jews: total effect (−0.65); Arabs: total effect (−0.64); and Ultra-Orthodox Jews: total effect (−0.59)]. In order to test the differences in the strength of the relationships between the resiliency factors and the dependent variable, the effects of SOC and intrapersonal hope on psychological distress were examined using a nested model. Equality constraints among groups were assigned for each effect, to allow for the comparison of the constrained model with the free model. Statistical differences were found for the variables as follows: SOC and psychological distress [( χ ( 51 ) 2 = 1056.7); Δ χ ( 3 ) 2 = 919.41; p < 0.001] and intrapersonal hope and psychological distress [( χ ( 51 ) 2 = 595.7); Δ χ ( 3 ) 2 = 458.41; p < 0.001]. This means that despite the fact that these variables made important and significant contributions to stress in all three groups, SOC and intrapersonal hope differed significantly in their contributions to psychological distress in the three groups. Both variables had the greatest contribution to psychological distress in the secular group.

The aim of this study was to compare three major cultural groups in Israel against the backdrop of a second lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. First, we explored the prevalence of psychological distress (i.e., anxiety, depression, and somatization), as well as resiliency factors among individuals in Israeli society. Second, we examined differences between the cultural groups in terms of the main study variables. Then, through the prism of several resiliency theories (i.e., salutogenesis, hope, and self-transcendence, which are all rooted in positive psychology), we attempted to examine how hope and SOC explain psychological distress in those cultural groups.

Our results show that, overall, during the pandemic, Israelis reported increased psychological distress, as compared to non-crisis times. These results replicate results from countries around the world which also reported elevated stress symptoms (e.g., Husky et al., 2020 ; Rossi et al., 2020 ). It seems that the ongoing stressful situation, together with the fact that people were just days before the second lockdown, brought individuals meaningful stress that led to anxiety and depression. Moreover, the fact that people had hardly gotten back to normal life led them to feel that they were giving up major parts of their life. In addition, the fact that this was the second time in which major Jewish holidays were to be celebrated only with the people with whom one lived, as opposed to celebrations with extended families, caused a great deal of distress.

Our second aim was to compare Ultra-Orthodox Jews, secular Jews, and Arabs, in terms of resiliency factors and psychological distress. Overall, it can be stated that the Ultra-Orthodox group reported the strongest resiliency factors and, correspondingly, suffered the fewest symptoms of psychological distress. This could be due to the fact that Ultra-Orthodox individuals have strong faith in God, which leads them to experience a meaningful life, which leads, in turn, to better mental health ( Wong, 2019 , 2020a ). These results might also be a result of the traditional structure of the Ultra-Orthodox family ( Cahaner and Malach, 2019 ). Ultra-Orthodox society is characterized by large families with many children living in dense communities. Feelings of loneliness are less frequent in such environments, which, in turn, leads to lower levels of the types of psychological distress evaluated in this study. Additionally, throughout the years it was found that religious practices and beliefs are positively related to life satisfaction, happiness and other indicators of mental well-being ( Koenig, 2001 ; Guillford, 2002 ). Thus, it seems that religious belief provides a positive worldview, which gives meaning to experiences, whether positive or negative. This is significant because it provides a sense of purpose in life, an optimistic attitude and a high level of hope ( Pargament et al., 2000 ; Koenig, 2001 ). In addition, religious beliefs can evoke positive emotions, such as joy, neutralizing or relieving stress in daily life ( Koenig, 2001 ).

From the examination of symptoms of psychological distress, it appears that both the secular Jews and the Arabs experienced high levels of distress. During regular times, members of Arab society in Israel suffer from more psychological distress than Jews, due to their political and economic status (i.e., lower participation in the workforce, lower income, and lower educational attainment), as well as social factors such as inferior social position, social exclusion, and an intense conflictual relationship with the Jewish majority ( Kaplan et al., 2010 ; Abu-Kaf, 2019 ; Abu-Kaf et al., 2020 ). It should be noted that also around the world, during the COVID-19 pandemic, minorities including Muslim Arabs reported elevated levels of stress ( Miconi et al., 2020 ). However, the significance of our results is that during this pandemic, it seems that secular Jewish society closed this gap with regards to psychological distress. Strong distrust in elected officials and representatives and their decisions, which appeared to the public to be random and based not on the actual situation on the ground, but rather on political pressure, led individuals to feelings of helplessness, which turned into distress.

Our results can be interpreted through the lens of the second wave of positive psychology (PP.2). This wave explores the negative sides of life while highlighting its optimistic parts and focusing on the productive functioning of individuals ( Mayer et al., 2019 ; Mayer and Vanderheiden, 2020 ). Therefore, in spite of the fact, that negative outcomes of psychological distress have emerged as result of the health pandemic, it could be, that it is only a first stage in which individuals can explore their situation and grow out of these difficulties which will transform also to positive outcomes.

Our main objective related to the explanation of psychological distress (i.e., somatization, anxiety, and depression) by the various demographic and resiliency factors (i.e., SOC and hope) and the examination of differences between the three cultural groups. Overall, in all three groups, the main resiliency factors of SOC and hope explained psychological distress significantly and powerfully. It should be mentioned that among the various components of hope, only the intrapersonal component was significant in all three groups.

Likewise other studies during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., Barni et al., 2020 ) the most significant and meaningful factor that most powerfully explained the psychological/emotional distress in the three cultural groups was SOC, with its three dimensions of comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness.

Similarly, the self-transcendence theory, which is the meaningfulness dimension of SOC, has seemed to be the most important component across studies ( Eriksson and Mittelmark, 2017 ). Thus, it seems that creating meaning for life, aside from being able to comprehend and manage one's life even during the chronic-stress situation of a pandemic, helps individuals from various cultures and backgrounds to better handle the situation, and, therefore, to suffer from less psychological distress. These results add significant knowledge to that provided by previous research, which compared acute and chronic situations of political violence and found that in chronic-stress situations among Western secular cultures, SOC serves as a major protective factor against psychological distress ( Sagy and Braun-Lewensohn, 2009 ).

The second important factor to explain psychological distress in the current study was intrapersonal hope, which means turning into oneself in order to assess one's resources. Our results elaborate understanding relating to basic and global hope during pandemic ( Trzebiński et al., 2020 ). Intrapersonal hope is connected to self-transcendence and allows the individual to be conscious of his/her internal resources and to apply those resources in the wider environment. Thus, it seems that positive, hopeful thoughts serve as significant protective factor in the face of the chronic stress of a pandemic.

In light of PP 2.0 it seems that those individuals who felt suffering as the starting point, were able to discover ways in which they adopt to the situation and transform their pain, distress and suffer to positive elements such as hope and SOC, which in turn result in wellbeing and strengths ( Wong, 2020b ). This processes of turning pain and suffer into growth and strength might be similar to the relationships which can be found throughout research between post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic growth (i.e., Liu et al., 2017 ).

A striking result emerged from our examination of the effect of gender on psychological distress. Similarly to results from populations around the world ( Spoorthy et al., 2020 ), being a secular woman meant being more vulnerable to the development of psychological distress. However, in the two more traditional and religious societies, the role of gender was less prominent. The gap between Ultra-Orthodox and Arab women, on the one hand, and secular women, on the other, might be explained in two possible ways. First, in traditional societies, women are very significant and influential in the communal and household spheres. Thus, in times of stress and crisis, the responsibility that they carry on their shoulders obligates them to act optimally and, as result, they do not allow themselves to be vulnerable. Moreover, as part of more traditional and collectivistic cultural contexts and regardless of their limited material resources, Ultra-Orthodox and Arab women are more directed toward self-transcendence, which means that their fundamental attitudes toward life involve less egotistic focus and more caring for others or for something greater than themselves ( Wong, 2020a ). This fundamental attitude protects them from psychological distress during stressful times. Second, as stated previously, the unique family structures of these two traditional societies, in which women are surrounded by many people, protects them from being lonely, depressed, and distressed. Religious and spiritual beliefs also strengthen feelings of being protected and empowerment among these groups of women. Additionally, leaders and authority figures in the Ultra-Orthodox community are in touch with the women of that community and provide encouragement, while secular women do not have such figures on whom to rely.

In the context of Arab society, this finding may be explained by the more traditional division of gender roles, in general, and in the home, in particular ( Abu-Kaf, 2019 ; Haj Yahia, 2019 ; Abu-Kaf et al., 2020 ). During the lockdown, Arab men experienced difficulty staying at home with no clear chores or responsibilities. It seems that Arab men closed the gap in psychological distress levels with Arab women during the health pandemic and, especially, during the lockdown period.

Study Limitations

Information about their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic was provided only by the individual themselves and, therefore, the collected data are subjective. In addition, because we lack baseline information about the rates of psychological distress and resiliency factors among the surveyed individuals prior to the study period, we cannot with certainty ascribe the outcomes solely to the impact of the examined stressful situation.

Despite these limitations, the importance of this study lies in the fact that it is a field study carried during a stressful situation, which provided as a natural laboratory for the investigation of human behavior ( Lazarus, 1982 ). It is also important to note that the secular Jewish, Ultra-Orthodox, and Arab communities are heterogeneous and include different subgroups. Future research should include large samples from the three populations and should pay more attention to variability within each population.

The aim of this study was to evaluate stress and resiliency in three cultural groups in Israel. Through the lens of PP.2 the covid-19 pandemic enabled us to understand how a harsh situation of health pandemic, can lead to suffer, but then facilitate power, growth and strength. Our main results show that while the Ultra-Orthodox group exhibited resiliency, the two other groups (i.e., secular Jews and Arabs) suffered from major psychological distress. However, when we examined how the resiliency factors of SOC and hope explain the symptoms of psychological distress, similar results emerged among the three groups, with SOC having the strongest effect, followed by intrapersonal hope.

These results lead to important policy recommendations. Action must be taken to raise the awareness of decision-makers of the great importance of the mental well-being of residents during health crises. This aspect has been neglected in relation to other urgent issues, such as employment and economic and physical health. The allocation of resources including sense of coherence ( Castiglioni and Gaj, 2020 ) for the improvement of existing mechanisms and strengthening the provision of mental-health services are critical tasks at this time.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Human Subjects Ethics Committee of the Conflict Management and Resolution Program at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Approved Ethics Form No. 2020-008). The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

OB-L wrote the manuscript, ran, and analyzed the data. SA-K and TK contributed to writing and analyzing the data. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Corona Challange Covid-19 BGU. Project no. 87793311.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

The handling editor declared a past co-authorship with one of the authors OB-L.

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Keywords: hope, sense of coherence, resilience, stress, pandemic, ethnic groups

Citation: Braun-Lewensohn O, Abu-Kaf S and Kalagy T (2021) Hope and Resilience During a Pandemic Among Three Cultural Groups in Israel: The Second Wave of Covid-19. Front. Psychol. 12:637349. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.637349

Received: 03 December 2020; Accepted: 25 January 2021; Published: 18 February 2021.

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Copyright © 2021 Braun-Lewensohn, Abu-Kaf and Kalagy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Orna Braun-Lewensohn, ornabl@bgu.ac.il

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

The Power of Resilience During COVID-19

Interview with emma peconga and gabby gauthier on how to build resilience..

Posted July 26, 2020

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Resilience does not come easily but there are ways to cultivate it, even during COVID-19 . In this interview, Emma PeConga and Gabby Gauthier discuss the importance of resilience and how we can work towards it amidst the current pandemic.

Emma PeConga, B.A., is a third-year and Gabby Gauthier, B.A., is a second-year doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at the University of Washington . They are both members of the UW Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress where their work focuses primarily on the development and maintenance of post- traumatic stress disorder. The Seattle Times has also covered their work on coping and resilience in the time of COVID-19.

Jamie Aten: How did you first get interested in this topic?

Emma PeConga & Gabby Gauthier: When the COVID-19 pandemic started, we began to see media coverage on increasing levels of anxiety , depression , and substance use and valid concerns about the long-term effects of this pandemic on our mental health. But at the University of Washington Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress (UWCATS), where we study how responses to traumatic stress develop, we know that resilience and recovery are, in fact, the most common responses to even the most severe trauma and adversity. We agree that we should all be vigilant about risks to our mental health during this time, but we also think it is important to honor the incredible human capacity to keep moving forward in the face of tremendous adversity. Although the COVID-19 global pandemic is in many ways unchartered territory, we wanted to spread our knowledge that we expect long-term resilience to be the most common outcome, even for those most directly impacted or those on the frontlines of the outbreak. We hope this knowledge instills hope and encourages readers to keep putting one foot in front of the other during these difficult times.

JA: What was the focus of your study ?

EP & GG: We wanted to combat four common myths about resilience and offer some ways to systematically build individual and community resiliency. These myths are: trauma exposure always leads to mental illness, resilient people don’t have bad days or weeks, resilience is a fixed disposition, and the mental health risk associated with COVID-19 is a hoax. We address each myth by pulling together the findings of recent research on human resilience.

JA: What did you discover in your study?

EP & GG: First, we show evidence that resilience and recovery are the most common responses to trauma and adversity. Most empirical studies are consistent with this assertion, and we highlight the examples of resilience demonstrated by first responders to the World Trade Center attacks and SARS outbreak, where the vast majority of those, in either event, did not meet criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) in the long term.

Next, we dismantle myths about what resilience means . Resilience is not a steady maintenance of well-being, but a set of behaviors that help individuals and communities to persist and move forward despite adversity. In other words, being resilient doesn’t mean you never struggle. Instead, it’s the ability to keep going when things get tough, whether that be by asking for help, admitting that you’re in pain, caring for others, or pulling back from some commitments. It’s making the necessary adjustments to live adaptively despite the changed negative circumstances you are facing. It is like a muscle you can strengthen and build. Last, we discuss that resilience is most strongly predicted by the cultivation of a social support network

JA: How might readers apply what you found to their lives during COVID-19?

EP & GG: We do expect to see short-term distress during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in those most directly impacted. We hope that this knowledge validates readers’ current distress and the distress of others in these deeply difficult times. Normalizing these reactions may encourage readers to reach out to their support networks for help and cultivate hope.

Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic may indirectly lead to mental health challenges through the interruption of in-person mental health care and social services. Under stay-at-home orders, many are isolated, even in unsafe conditions. These outcomes can be buffered by a strong community, whose members trust and check-in with each other, and feel comfortable asking for help when they need it. In other words, how we act now may prevent challenges down the road, and we hope readers really take that to heart.

Evidence shows that adopting an attitude of togetherness and acting in ways that support the most vulnerable in our communities can have marked effects on our own mental health resilience, as well. Easy to do examples could include delivering groceries for a neighbor, “babysitting” a friend’s child over a video call, or donating food to your local food banks. We believe cultivating this community now is essential, as it is clear this pandemic will be impacting our daily lives for many more months and potentially years. It is a long-term mental stance of smartly and persistently building resiliency for oneself and for others.

JA: How can readers use what you found to help others amidst this pandemic?

EP & GG: We, as a society, have an opportunity to identify those who are hurting and evoke processes we know foster resilience such as creatively providing persistent, positive social support and making collective meaning during these times. Our commentary highlights the importance of cultivating strong communities that look out for each other’s well-being and are available to offer support. We hope that readers will continue to build these relationships by reaching out to neighbors, friends, and family to ask for help and offer assistance. Our participation in these networks will help us to make meaning out of our varied experiences, hopefully leaving us with a sense of togetherness, as opposed to isolation.

JA: What are you currently working on that you might like to share about?

EP & GG: In regards to COVID-19 and other recent stressors specifically, Michele Bedard-Gilligan, a senior author on this paper, and her team at UW Trauma Recovery Innovations has lead webinars for our first-line medical responders at the University of Washington’s Medical Center on providing psychological first aid and building resiliency, using evidence-informed skills for responding to the immediate effects of stressors and trauma to ultimately foster and protect mental wellness. We have also worked as a team to help translate these skills to at-risk communities in our own city to help address mental health care disparities due to systemic racism .

Finally, our team at the UWCATS has two recently funded NIH-funded studies that share the common goal of using brief, targeted psychotherapy approaches to promote recovery following trauma. One study focuses on posttraumatic stress and substance use problems, targeting fear and reward processes in the first year following sexual assault . The other study focuses on anxiety and loss following major destabilizing life events like those that have occurred due to COVID-19, targeting maladaptive “stuck” processes and developing more adaptive constructive processing. Both of these studies provide brief psychotherapy for free and seek to better disseminate resilience and recovery science to our communities, maximizing the reach of these therapeutics to those who need it most.

PeConga, E., Gauthier, G., Holloway, A., Walker, R., Rosencrans, P., Zoellner, L., & Bedard-Gilligan, M. (2020). Resilience is spreading: Mental health within the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy . https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32496106/ .

Jamie Aten , Ph.D. , is the founder and executive director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College.

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Keeping Hope Alive Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

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By Lilian Dodzo, the National Director for World Vision in Kenya

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of disruption in people's lives all over the world.  In Kenya, just as in other affected countries, the government has rolled out various initiatives aimed at keeping people safe and halting the spread of the disease.

Aside from promoting good hygiene practices such as hand washing with soap and water, the government has also put in place a raft of measures aimed at enhancing social distancing. 

These include, amongst others : closure of schools, banning of public gatherings, limiting the number of passengers that public transport vehicles can carry, limiting inter-county movement , and initiating a daily curfew starting from 7pm to 5am.

The disease and the changes it has caused in normal life, have led to fear and uncertainty among many people. No one knows when the COVID-19 outbreak will end, where the next epicentre will be , as well as how long they will continue to endure its adverse effects such as social isolation and job losses.

Amidst these challenges, it is important to keep hope alive. As a prayerful nation, we should be reassured that God is still in control and will see us through these difficult times, through His love and sufficient grace.

Keeping hope alive also entails playing our part to protect ourselves and other people from getting the disease. We should strictly adhere to prevention guidelines recommended by the Ministry of Health, as well as the World Health Organisation (such as good hygiene practices,  social distancing and  putting on face masks ) that help to minimise COVID-19 transmission rates. These measures, no matter how inconveniencing they may appear, are key to winning the coronavirus disease fight.

We also need to tackle the spread of rumours by choosing to only share factual information from reliable and credible organisations. Desist from feeding the rumour mill by forwarding unconfirmed information regarding covid-19 that may lead to unnecessary fear among the population.

It is important to stay informed about current trends or progress in the COVID-19 fight. But this should be done in moderation so as to protect our mental health. This is because the sudden and near- constant stream of news reports about an outbreak can cause anyone to get worried.

A sense of connectedness with loved ones, be it family or friends, can also help us to stay positive. Even though social distancing has reduced the interactions we have with others, we can still rely on technology - such as mobile phones and social media - to talk to loved ones and continue encouraging each other.

Through our COVID-19 Emergency Response Plan, World Vision will continue to work with the government and other partners to limit the spread of the coronavirus disease and reduce its impact on vulnerable children and families.

This will be achieved through the scaling up of preventive measures aimed at reducing the spread of the disease, with a focus on awareness raising as well as strengthening health systems, supporting health workers who are at the forefront of the COVID-19 fight and meeting the needs of vulnerable communities whose economic livelihoods may be negatively impacted by COVID-19.

Above all, we seek to support children impacted by the disease through initiatives aimed at ensuring that they get education and food, and that they are protected from abuse or violations of their rights.

WATCH this video to learn how to keep positive amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

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Finding hope in the midst of a pandemic

During this crisis, it is normal and natural to ask where god is.  but this is not a time for christians to retreat from their faith, says godfrey kesari.

A man in Leeds, wearing a face mask, waits for a bus, on Tuesday

WE FEEL a deep sense of precariousness in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. We realise how fragile and vulnerable we are to outbreaks of infectious diseases. It is as if we are suddenly blindsided and brought to a standstill by the pestilence. Unsure of what will happen next, we often take a deep breath to calm our racing pulses.

The prognosis is for more people to be affected by the virus in the coming days. The steep economic downturn and concomitant loss of jobs and incomes, economic distress, and lowered quality of life due to the pandemic deepens the all-round gloom. Whether Covid-19 poses an existential threat to the human race or not, it has certainly become a serious global health crisis. It is spreading rapidly, assuming alarming proportions and causing much psychological anxiety.

None of us were prepared for this outbreak. Some are led to ask why a good and loving God allows pandemics such as this in our world. In times such as this, it is normal and natural to ask where God is. The Psalmist cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Some conclude that struggles such as these are evidence for the non-existence of God.

THIS is, however, a time to wait patiently for hope to spring from our life of “social distancing” and “self-isolation”. We need not retreat from our faith, even in the face of suffering in the manner of Job. Even if we turn away from God momentarily, we can return to God and re-establish our relationship with him. We come to terms with our difficulties in the belief that God cares for us despite the pandemic and its effects. In fact, we can take time in prayer to derive strength from God to bear the trials and tribulations of life, or, to use a Shakespearean phrase, “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”, and overcome them. God is our solace and succour.

I do not claim to have found a final answer to the question of suffering, especially that which is caused by a global pandemic. Nor am I inclined to wish away or downplay in any way the enormity of pain and suffering that it causes. I would readily concede that the misery and the sense of loss engendered by the virus and related difficulties are beyond words.

Still, I would endeavour to offer a few angles through which we can look at the situation and see whether we can still have faith in God.

First, it is quite clear that denying the existence of God does not diminish the problem in any way. It is true that people are disposed to look at the sufferings, which are sometimes more than they can bear, and conclude that there is no God. But we have to be clear that that conclusion does not help in the alleviation or abolition of suffering. On the other hand, faith in God can give us the strength to bear the suffering, and bring us hope that, with God’s grace and help, things will change for the better.

Second, for believers, God dwells among the people and never leaves them alone. As the Psalmist puts it, even in the deepest valleys of suffering, God is there. This is what the gospel of Christ teaches us, too. The love shown by Jesus Christ on the cross affirms that God stays with us when we are afflicted. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, knows our pain and suffering, and identifies with us when we go through them. He stays with us in times of pandemic and related difficulties, too. A true friend stays with us when we are in pain. God, our Father and true friend, does not go away when we suffer, but stays with us. THIRD, we have to acknowledge that we live in a fallen and broken world. The present epidemic is a crisis delivered by nature. Here, we must accept the simple truth that you and I sometimes suffer not because of our own mistakes, but because of others’ faults, too. Sometimes, we are also caught up by natural calamities such as the pandemic. In other words, suffering is part and parcel of life. No one is exempt from suffering in this far from perfect world.

Fourth, we need to learn more readily to accept that this world is no heaven, and to go one step further and see pain and suffering as evidence — a sort of precursor — of something better that is to come. People who put their trust in God believe that their life in this world is only a temporary one, and everlasting life begins when they live with God in heaven. This acceptance helps them to hold on to their faith in God.

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Fifth, whether we believe in God or not, pain is real. Both believers and non-believers go through “heaven and hell” — happy and sad experiences — in this world. Faith lends a sweet dimension to life (as they say, it “adds spice” to life) and makes it worth living. Faith is therapeutic: it is an antidote to despair and depression. Faith in God promises and provides “peace that passeth all understanding”.

Sixth, when we lose faith, we lose the basis of our moral values. The civilisation that is built on Christian teaching remains strong and unshaken by “storms”. Christianity as a moral compass enables us to thwart the designs of the “selfish gene” and behave altruistically.

One of the basic tenets of Christianity is that we should love our neighbour. The pandemic should promote global co-operation and collaboration, make us aware of the futility of fighting among ourselves and tame our aggressive instincts, result in the reduction of manufacture of arms and ammunition, and make us more scientific in our thinking and lifestyle. Science is a gift which should be used for constructive purposes.

Seventh, I hear some people say that they wish that they had a faith, something to cling on to. Perhaps they are unable to have faith in God because of their bad or bitter experiences in life. In that situation, I would try to persuade them to be open-minded and to seek God. In his abundant love for humanity, God promises that those who seek him will find him. God keeps his promises. I would here add that we should not give up until we find God — perhaps, more precisely, until God finds us. 

A LIFE with faith in God is a journey undertaken with the hope of reaching the destination: “God who is our home”, to quote William Wordsworth. Ups and downs are normal in this “arduous” journey, and it is through ups and downs that we grow in faith.

The Bible invites us to trust that, if God allows pain, he will give us the strength to go through it, and he will show us the way out of it. I pray that God will help us to know his peace, comfort, and healing in the midst of the pandemic, or any other suffering that we may go through in life.

The Revd Dr Godfrey Kesari is the Vicar of Holy Innocents, Southwater, in the diocese of Chichester.

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An Offering of Hope During COVID-19: A Personal Reflection

Affiliation.

• 1 Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University, New York, USA. [email protected].
• PMID: 32734517
• PMCID: PMC7392123
• DOI: 10.1007/s10943-020-01075-8

This essay offers a philosophical and spiritual exploration of some of the language that has become part of daily life amidst the COVID-19 crisis.

Keywords: COVID-19; Ethics; Grace; Healing; Hope; Language; Pandemic; Philosophy; Poetry.

• Betacoronavirus
• Coronavirus Infections / epidemiology
• Coronavirus Infections / psychology*
• Pneumonia, Viral / epidemiology
• Pneumonia, Viral / psychology*
• Spirituality*

• Subscribe Now

Finding hope during a pandemic

Already have Rappler+? Sign in to listen to groundbreaking journalism.

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Raise your hand if you’ve experienced at least one of these scenarios: Spacing out in front of your computer too often (brain fog included); listlessly staring at your bedroom ceiling at two in the morning, unable to shut your brain off for sleep; or waking up with a surge of heart-pounding anxiety, feeling too paralyzed to move.

Maybe you’ve experienced all of the above, plagued by a general sense of fatigue every day – almost like you’re walking through a swamp full of mud, both physically and mentally.

(Note: These symptoms may be indicative of mental health disorders, which should only be diagnosed by a healthcare professional. Please seek professional help if needed).

When should I see a psychologist? Or a psychiatrist? Or both?

These scenarios, psychologist and relationship counselor Lissy Puno says, are signs of hopelessness – something many of us have been experiencing over a year and a half into the pandemic. It’s that persistent “meh” feeling at the background of everything we do, the fear of believing that things will get better soon, or the thought that nothing will change.

However, this “hopeless” feeling is completely valid and normal given the circumstances, Lissy Ann says. We’ve spent over a year and a half in lockdown, left to our own devices, with no clear end in sight. It’s no wonder we’ve lost hope, and we shouldn’t blame ourselves for that.

It’s okay to not be okay: Losing hope is valid

It’s important to tell yourself that it’s normal to be feeling this way – after all, nothing about these “trying times” is normal. Finding new ways to mentally cope and “pivot” during a traumatic pandemic is already tough enough, coupled with the need to survive, the pressure to thrive, and the fact that the light at the end of this coronavirus tunnel seems dim.

Year one was okay. What’s wrong with a few months stuck at home, baking sourdough, whipping coffee, trying yoga, no longer commuting to work, and hopping on Zoom calls with friends? Some even welcomed this slower pace of home life – until it stretched on for too long.

We’re halfway through 2021 and the pandemic novelty has worn off. We’re tired, amid a third hard lockdown in Metro Manila, rising COVID-19 cases, political debates, work-from-home burnout, and a constant cycle of lockdowns and bad news.

“People are losing hope that things will be better because the uncertainty and the unknowns have just been dragging on for too long,” Lissy told Rappler.

“To stay hopeful, we need to know and see the ‘finish line’ to keep going.  With the pandemic, the ‘finish line’ has been changed too many times in different areas of life that people are feeling hopeless,” she added. This is when clinging onto hope starts to feel ridiculous and fruitless.

The meaning of hope, then and now

According to Lissy, the basic definition of “hope” is the belief that things will get better. On the contrary, “hopelessness” may sound like: “This will never end,” “Nothing will change,” and “We will continue to be in this state for who knows when.”

“In these times, there are glimpses of what may help keep us hopeful,” Lissy said, such as the loosening of quarantine restrictions, opportunities to finally connect with people, a decrease in cases, the re-opening of favorite establishments, or the possibility of travel. “But then those go away, and there is a lot of disappointment that takes away hope of what we envision moving forward,” Lissy added. In a way, hope becomes tiring.

Lissy notes that hopelessness is something we’ve all experienced, even prior to the pandemic, due to the “usual stressors, like traffic, finances, job security, being in relationships, raising families, and so on.”

“When this became too much, we engaged in activities that brought joy, happiness and hope,” she said. Now, all of that is taken away. 

“We have lost our usual stress-busters and coping mechanisms that would bring us renewed hope every time,” Lissy said, which are now hard (or even impossible) to look forward to due to the pandemic.

Cabin fever in lockdown? What it is and what you can do about it

Had a stressful day at the office? Maybe calling up your friends to meet over drinks was your go-to decompressor. Mental block at work? Take a break at your favorite coffee shop. Need to clear your head before heading home from work? There’s nothing a leisurely stroll around the mall and some retail therapy can’t fix. Going through a break-up? Book a trip with your girlfriends and head to the beach.

The pandemic has come with its own share of stressors, but our coping mechanisms have now just been limited to within our four walls.

Lissy quotes American psychologist C.R. Snyder, who defines hope as the “belief that there is the possibility of a better future,” and “the knowledge of the possibility of something better.” It was easier to hope for things to be better back then; we had the choice to switch up our routine the next day, or the agency to plan a fun weekend with loved ones, knowing for certain that’s all we’d need to feel better again.

Hope now comes at a deeper level and at higher prices. “We hope that this will pass, hope that I will find a job, hope that I can cope with my financial obligations, hope that the right partner will come my way, hope that me and my family will stay healthy, hope that everyone gets the vaccination, hope that we will emerge from this pandemic, and just hope that no one dies,” Lissy said.

Are you hopeful or hopeless?

According to C.R. Synder, an individual with a “strong sense of hope” uses hope to manage their worries, stress, and negative thoughts, reassuring themselves that “things will get better.” They are motivated to stay positive by looking for things that make them happy. 

“Hopeful people also plan for their future – both near and far – and make choices to help them achieve their goals/dreams. Hopeful people take charge of moving forward,” Lissy said. It’s also important to note that there is no definite timeline for “moving forward” – do it at your own pace.

If your goal is to stay connected, this could be something as simple as scheduling a virtual game night with your friends. If your dream is to launch your own online business, blocking off a few hours to do research is a small but impactful step. If the goal is just to get through the work day, simply writing a to-do list is enough. Even just setting aside “me time” every night is something hopeful individuals do.

On the other hand, Lissy says that an “individual who is hopeless” is one who cannot find the silver lining in any situation, and doesn’t have the mental capacity to reassure themselves that small inconveniences are not the end of the world. A “hopeless” individual could easily take constructive criticism as a sign that their job is at stake, and not alternatively think that this could just be an opportunity to perform better next time around. A break-up could be misconstrued as a failure on their part, instead of thinking that they deserve someone better.

“These people also avoid life experiences that can turn things around for the better, or small choices that can help them. They tend to focus on the negative,” Lissy said. It’s normal to experience feelings of sadness, disappointment, and self-pity from time to time. However, if left unchecked and unprocessed, individuals may end up wallowing in these negative states for too long, which could lead to anxiety and/or depression.

Hope is not something that is obtained externally; it is something found, awakened, or honed from within. This is what Lissy calls the “Powerful Self” – a mode that enables us to see the world and our experiences in a hopeful, positive light.

“The Powerful Self is usually the competent self versus the helpless/hopeless mode of self. These modes of self make us see things, think of things, feel things, and act in a certain way based on this mode,” Lissy said.

“If I see a situation with my Powerful Self, that experience will most likely be satisfying and fulfilling.  If I see a situation with my helpless/hopeless self, the experience would be filled with worry, anxiety, and with a sense of failure and dread,” she added.

You might feel like working extra hard is the only way to “achieve” it, but the Powerful Self isn’t something external from you. The Powerful Self is already within. Lovingly and patiently allow it to emerge by fostering and embracing the following qualities:

• Competent. “I can handle whatever life throws my way. I got this. ” According to Lissy, a competent individual “believes they have the capability to cope with whatever experiences and problems the day may have in store.”
• Growing. “There is something I can learn from this.” “What is this situation telling me?” Having a growth mindset (and not a “woe is me” victim mentality) is crucial to stay hopeful. This person can “improve, understand, and see things in a positive perspective,” and understand that “the possibilities are still limitless.”
• Nurturing. “I can take care of myself and the needs of others.” “How can I better care for myself?” Before caring for their loved ones, the Powerful Self understands the importance of caring for one’s self by listening to their own needs and respecting their boundaries.
• Compassionate. “I can be kind to myself and accept myself for who I am.” “I respect and empower myself .” Tough times call for more kindness, especially to yourself. When we start becoming more compassionate to ourselves, we become the same to others.

Despite these dire circumstances, daily choices can help soothe the anxiety that comes from feeling helpless. Aside from your usual arsenal of coping mechanisms – whether that be exercise, professional therapy, self-help books, or prayer – Lissy Ann shares five small steps to keeping the hope alive.

• Create new dreams that you can plan for. 
• Look for positive mentors, friends, public figures, or family members who stayed hopeful during their challenges. Reach out.
• Listen or read inspiring messages of hope. You can check out TED Talks on YouTube, join online spiritual communities, or read poetry.
• Allow yourself to discover new things about yourself and others. Keep an open mind. Connect.
• Look for your silver linings during the pandemic. Practice giving every situation the benefit of the doubt.
• Practice gratitude daily. Something as simple as writing down five things you’re thankful for every morning – from the roof over your head, to your health, and even to your cup of coffee – can help set the tone of your day.

Can’t stand change? Lissy Ann says: Look for your constants. Keep your friends, family, and pets close, and don’t forget to rely on yourself for daily self-care – having a routine helps. In this chaos, try to find your calm.

Confused? Seek clarity. Only read news from trusted media outlets, and tune out the rest. Practice social media hygiene by avoiding constant doom-scrolling and taking necessary breaks.

Feeling out of control? Anxiety preys on our need for control and our fear of uncertainty, so try to focus on the things that you can control, like your daily habits, reactions, choices, intentions, and actions. Accept and surrender what you can’t change.

Concerned? Be careful. Continue taking care of your physical and mental health, and don’t forget to be honest. Sharing your fears and anxieties with others is not a sign of weakness. Opening up is strength.

The light at the end of the tunnel may seem hard to find right now, but despite the darkness, we still choose to get up every day. That alone is a sign that we haven’t given up hope, and that we believe that better things are on their way. Hold on to hope – no matter what it looks like to you – because on most days, it’s all you need to get by. – Rappler.com

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15 May 2020

Thoughts on Hope amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic is hitting our communities hard. Doctors, epidemiologists, politicians, as well as ordinary citizens all try to deal with this pandemic in the best way possible. We, as Institute of Leadership and Social Ethics , want to make a modest contribution to this effort, specifically from our research project ‘Driven by Hope’.

It is noteworthy to see how dominant the use of ‘hope’-language is in the societal discourse about the Covid-19 pandemic. This is understandable, because hope is a crisis emotion par excellence – the experience of distress, incompleteness or lack is the starting point of human aspirations. In our research on hope, we have discovered a number of hope-mechanisms, which are pertinent in the context of this crisis.

First, aspirations vary: hope can either be passive (as in hoping that it won’t rain tomorrow), or active. While a passive form of hope can give rise to complacency, an active form of hope stirs us towards action, spurring us on to achieve our goals. We see this form of hope in the medical personnel who are giving their utmost efforts in caring for those infected by the virus, as well as in the scientists who are frantically working on the creation of a vaccine – these efforts are motivated by the hope to lose as few people as possible to this new infectious disease.

Secondly, it is important to realise that hope isn’t simply individual motivation; it is also a social phenomenon. By means of the hopebarometer , which we developed, we have advanced this insight. Our research shows that there is a correlation between social connectedness and hope: people who have more social relations are more hopeful than people with less social contacts. There are vicious circles here: the fewer friends you have, the less hopeful you are, which in turn makes you less likely to try to make new friends – whereas if you have more friends, the more hopeful you are, which in turn stimulates you to reach out for new friendships.

Seen in that light, the current Covid-19 pandemic is especially dangerous: we are actively encouraged to limit our interactions with others. While social distancing is a wise policy, a drop in physical closeness with others has a demonstrably negative side-effect on the strength of our ‘social immune system’. It is especially the most vulnerable and lonely people who run the risk of missing out.

Particularly in that light, it is important to keep looking for ways in which to show care and support to the most vulnerable in our society. Also in this search, ‘hope’ plays an important role; that brings me to the third insight. Hope is the art of formulating ambitious yet achievable goals, as well as in the ability to discern various ways to achieve these goals. In particular, it requires the ability to give up on taking a specific path to the goal, if that path doesn’t bring us to the goal, and the creativity to discern a new path. This creativity is on full display now, such as in initiatives to use videocalling to bring family members in contact with their older relatives, in care homes, instead of physical visits.

There is more to say a about the significance of ‘hope’ in light of the Covid-19 pandemic; this is only a modest beginning. On our projectwebsite , we will formulate more insights relevant to this crisis, from the perspective of hope theory. In this way, we seek to contribute to a more hopeful, resilient society, particularly in this difficult time.

Steven C. van den Heuvel is Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at ETF Leuven and leader of the project ‘Driven by Hope’, funded by the Goldschmeding Foundation.

A Year After Coronavirus: An Inclusive ‘New Normal’

Six months into a new decade, 2020 has already been earmarked as ‘the worst’ year in the 21st century. The novel coronavirus has given rise to a global pandemic that has destabilized most institutional settings. While we live in times when humankind possesses the most advanced science and technology, a virus invisible to the naked eye has massively disrupted economies, healthcare, and education systems worldwide. This should serve as a reminder that as we keep making progress in science and research, humanity will continue to face challenges in the future, and it is upon us to prioritize those issues that are most relevant in the 21st century.

Even amidst the pandemic, Space X, an American aerospace manufacturer, managed to become the first private company to send humans to space. While this is a tremendous achievement and prepares humanity for a sustainable future, I feel there is a need to introspect the challenges that we are already facing. On the one hand, we seem to be preparing beyond the 21st century. On the other hand, heightened nationalism, increasing violence against marginalized communities and multidimensional inequalities across all sectors continue to act as barriers to growth for most individuals across the globe. COVID-19 has reinforced these multifaceted economic, social and cultural inequalities wherein those in situations of vulnerability have found it increasingly difficult to get quality medical attention, access to quality education, and have witnessed increased domestic violence while being confined to their homes. 

Given the coronavirus’s current situation, some households have also had time to introspect on gender roles and stereotypes. For instance, women are expected to carry out unpaid care work like cooking, cleaning, and looking after the family. There is no valid reason to believe that women ought to carry out these activities, and men have no role in contributing to household chores. With men having shared household chores during the lockdown period, it gives hope that they will realize the burden that women have been bearing for past decades and will continue sharing responsibilities. However, it would be naïve to believe that gender discrimination could be tackled so easily, and men would give up on their decades' old habits within a couple of months. Thus, during and after the pandemic, there is an urgent need to sensitize households on the importance of gender equality and social cohesion.

Moving forward, developing quality healthcare systems that are affordable and accessible to all should be the primary objective for all governments. This can be done by increasing expenditure towards health and education and simultaneously reducing expenditure on defence equipment where the latter mainly gives rise to an idea that countries need to be prepared for violence. There is substantial evidence that increased investment in health and education is beneficial in the long-term and can potentially build the basic foundation of a country. 

If it can be established that usage of nuclear weapons, violence and war are not solutions to any problem, governments (like, for example, Costa Rica) could move towards disarmament of weapons and do their part in building a more peaceful planet that is sustainable for the future. This would further promote global citizenship wherein nationality, race, gender, caste, and other categories, are just mere variables and they do not become identities of individuals that restrict their thought process. The aim should be to build responsible citizens who play an active role in their society and work collectively in helping develop a planet that is well-governed, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable.

 ‘A year after Coronavirus’ is still an unknown, so I think that our immediate focus should be to tackle the complex problems that have emerged from the pandemic so that we make the year after coronavirus one which highlights recovery and acts as a pathway to fresh beginnings. While there is little to gain from such a fatal cause, it is vital that we also use it to make the ‘new normal’ in favour of the environment and ensure that no one is left behind.   

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