This exploratory study assessed parents' perceptions of the emotional and behavioral impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on their children. The total sample included 749 children, aged 4 to 13 years old (353 girls, 396 boys); 524 parents took part. The emotional and behavioral changes observed during the societal lockdown, family coexistence, the impact of COVID-19 on family well-being, and the frequency of social contacts before and during this lockdown were investigated. Results show that the most frequently reported difficulties were worry, agitation, anxiety, sadness, loneliness, nervousness, arguing, anger, frustration, boredom, irritability, behavioral problems, and laziness. Family coexistence declined significantly during this lockdown, and parents mentioned that COVID-19 had an impact on family well-being. Various ordinal logistic regressions showed that family coexistence, children's nervousness due to COVID-19, the impact of COVID-19 on family well-being, age, and social contacts before and during this lockdown seemed to explain the various emotional and behavioral changes observed in children during the societal lockdown. These results are discussed and recommendations are made.

The COVID-19 pandemic disturbs mental health. Indeed, higher levels of negative emotions and anxiety, along with lower levels of positive emotions and well-being, have been highlighted. As a result, individuals need to regulate these psychological states in a context of uncertainty and daily restrictions (e.g., access to leisure activities, social contacts) or modifications of livelihood (e.g., working modalities). Overall, psychological reactions to the pandemic have been shown to differ based on one’s age. The purpose of this research is to compare psychological reactions to the pandemic between Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) and Older Adults. The generation’s prism seems relevant as members of specific generations are shaped (e.g., views of the world, the future) by their similar experiences. Ninety-four Millennials and 129 Older Adults, recruited in the general population, participated to an online survey assessing emotions, emotion regulation strategies, environmental satisfaction, and intolerance of uncertainty. Results show that Millennials experience higher levels of negative emotions along with higher levels of worry and rumination than Older Adults. Millennials also report a higher level of joy. Nonetheless, more Older Adults engage themselves in novel activities. Overall, findings confirm previous ones and indicate the need to offer effective clinicals tool to prevent mental health worsening.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been shown to induce several psychological consequences (e.g., increases in anxiety and stress). Accordingly, it seems relevant to investigate how individuals cope with their emotions. Indeed, when facing negative emotions, individuals need to rely on adaptive emotion regulation strategies to alleviate their negative impacts (e.g., decrease in quality of life, increase in sleep disturbances). Moreover, lockdown’s measures led to a restriction of the access to activities which, in turn, might have decreased the “environmental satisfaction”. Then, this research investigates the pandemic’s psychological impacts on emotions and regulation strategies, intolerance of uncertainty, and environmental satisfaction. Our approach’s originality relies on comparing one’s actual psychological functioning (i.e., since the pandemic) to one’s general psychological functioning (i.e., before the pandemic). This study also assesses the relationships between both negative and positive emotions and (1) emotion regulation strategies, (2) intolerance of uncertainty and, (3) environmental satisfaction since the pandemic and its lockdown. The total sample comprised 948 adults from the general population. Results show that, since the pandemic, individuals experience higher levels of negative emotions, lower levels of positive emotions and environmental satisfaction. They also tend to worry less and to resort to acceptance more often. Also, environmental satisfaction is the most important predictor of both negative emotions and positive ones. Overall, findings confirm previous ones and seem to indicate that environmental satisfaction should be addressed more thoroughly.

Virtual reality (VR) has witnessed significant growth in the mental health field. However, clinical observations reveal substantial variability across individuals’ responses to VR. This diversity could be attributed to differences in the sense of presence, a key factor in VR’s efficacy. Understanding the influence of personality traits on shaping the sense of presence in VR is essential, as it holds the potential to enhance the effectiveness of VR interventions. In the current study, we investigate the potential impact of the need for control on one’s sense of presence in VR, hypothesizing that a higher need for control is associated with lower presence levels. We conducted research with 40 adults who completed questionnaires (assessing perfectionism, intolerance of uncertainty, experiential avoidance, Big Five, sense of presence, anxiety level) and engaged in a VR immersion. Results suggest that the need for control positively influences the sense of presence, which is contrary to the literature. A discussion is proposed to explore the impact of high need for control, indicating that its effects may depend on the anxiety-inducing nature of the immersion condition. We put forth an innovative theoretical model on how a strong desire for control could affect the sense of presence in different immersive conditions. Our findings warrant further investigations in this direction.