A multilevel analysis of the effects of indoor activities on psychological wellbeing during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The study aims to analyze the effects of indoor activities such as physical exercise, digital socializing, and digital gaming on the subjective wellbeing levels of individuals. Given the dynamic nature of the pandemic, to catch the day-level within individual variance (along with between individuals variance), the study adopts a multilevel approach where days are nested in people. 1950 day-level data are collected from 390 respondents for five consecutive days during the first phase of the pandemic (when there were strict social isolation policies) in Turkey. Results for partitioning variance components supported the necessity of using a multilevel approach. Findings of analysis conducted through hierarchical linear modeling demonstrated that day-level physical activity at home and digital socializing significantly alleviate daily negative affect and positively associate with day-level positive affect and happiness levels of respondents. These results were controlled for demographic variables, extraversion, and psychological resiliency. Extraversion was negatively, and psychological resiliency was positively related to day-level negative affect.