COVID-Dynamic: A large-scale multifaceted longitudinal study of socioemotional and behavioral change across the pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is a catastrophe that has caused societal upheaval globally. In the US, 2 it triggered an economic shock and laid bare societal inequities. However, it also afforded a unique 3 opportunity to elucidate the dynamics of psychosocial processes during extreme and volatile 4 conditions. From April 2020 through January 2021, we conducted a within-participant longitudinal 5 study—in 16 waves—to capture the COVID-19 experiences of >1000 US residents, together with 6 curated, external data to contextualize participants' responses. Each hour-long wave combined 7 standard psychological assessments with surveys of emotion, social/political/moral attitudes, 8 COVID-19-related behaviors, and tasks assessing implicit attitudes and social decision-making. 9 Here we characterize the sample, assess data quality, and showcase examples to demonstrate 10 the promise of this dataset, which is intended to be a resource for researchers interested in a 11 multitude of psychological questions, as well as clinicians and policy makers looking to mitigate 12 the psychological effects of future calamities.