Discussion
The present research asked Japanese individuals to report daily
behaviors they often engage in before and after the COIVD-19 outbreak to
examine how behavioral changes differ by people’s demography. Eating
out, going shopping, doing housework, and engaging in leisure activities
were the most frequently mentioned actions. The frequency of people
performing them seems to be significantly changed by the pandemic. Those
changes are, however, mediated by the people’s demography. Examination
by age showed that younger people generally go out more than older
people while having to experience a greater reduction of those
activities since the outbreak. This implies that the decrease (or
restriction) of going out maybe more psychologically detrimental for
younger people [18,19]. Independence and financial capability can
open broader possibilities of substitutional behaviors or solutions for
the problems, but those options are also limited for the younger
generations.
Housework is highlighted by all the demography-based examinations,
indicating that housework is a major part of people’s lives and its
increase due to the pandemic has a significant impact. Unbalanced
distribution of housework between men and women has been a significant
social problem in Japan, reflecting the country’s low level of gender
equality [20]. The present results showed that women reported a
greater number of housework-related activities than men. Although the
extent of increase in this activity was equivalent for both genders, the
psychological stress must be much more notable for women, which may
contribute to the pandemic-induced mental problems among them
[21-23].
Interestingly, activities related to internet use and sedentary
behaviors (e.g., watching TV), which have been reported to be increased
by the pandemic [7], were not mentioned very often in the present
study. No significant change between the two conditions was also
observed. Although the present results do not strictly reflect the
actual frequency of activity performance, it can be said that the
participants were not conscious of the changes in those activities. This
suggests that the impact of the increased internet use on mental health
might not be so significant compared to other causes, at least in Japan,
despite an established direct relationship between the two factors.
The limitation of this study is that the appearance rates in the current
results do not directly reflect how often those behaviors are performed.
However, the appearance rate must reflect the subjective significance of
those behaviors for the participants, and this must correlate with
frequency in occurrence.