Long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological and social well-being of Poles: The role of post-crisis processes of social support, interpersonal and community relationships.

The main purpose of this research is to address the following questions: What stressors spurred by the COVID-19 disaster activated individual and collective reactions, and influenced the long-term psychological and social well-being? What of these interpersonal and community processes can be identified as mechanisms explaining the COVID-19 impact on changes in social and psychological well-being? What person and environmental factors enhanced or diminished these relationships? These general issues will be examined from four distinctive theoretical and empirical perspectives: a) postdisaster communities, b) social support, c) social identity, and d) political orientations. There are many psychological and social resources and processes that empower humans to show resilience and recover successfully from calamities. Chief among them is the individual and collective capacity to protect, maintain and augment in times of adversity, the survivors' perceptions of being supported and belonging to a cohesive social group and community. Ultimately, the success or failure in coping with collective crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic, depends, to a large extent, on interpersonal and social functioning. People's social identities, a product of belonging to a group such as family, neighborhood, political party, or cultural region are also critical determinants of health and well-being. We will ask to what extent different social group identifications influenced receiving and providing help as well as psychological wellbeing in the time of COVID-19. We recognize that disasters are political events with pressures for consensus in returning to the "status quo" versus opportunities for social change. Postdisaster politics typically moves toward increased support for conservatism and conformity to strong leadership. Hence, we will examine to what extent political outlooks, attitudes, and affiliations serve as protective or vulnerability factors in adjusting to the socio-political changes brought about by the COVID-19 crisis. This broad analytical framework, based on established social science approaches to studying disasters, will offer recommendations for psychological interventions and inoculation against future calamities.