This is how Worthing readers say the lockdown has affected their lives - and their biggest concerns

To mark 50 days since the UK lockdown began, readers of the Worthing Herald have had their say on how the situation has affected them, their relationships and their mental health.
The results are inThe results are in
The results are in

Our lockdown survey, published across this title and 150 others across the UK last week, offers an insight into how the coronavirus crisis and lockdown has impacted people in Worthing and their concerns for the future.

In total we asked readers 25 questions on their attitude towards the lockdown.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Of these questions three focused on how the lockdown has affected mental health, relationships and concerns for the future - and today we can reveal how people in Worthing answered.

The majority of Worthing Herald readers who completed our survey said they felt personally most concerned about the health and wellbeing of family/ friends (53%).

This was followed by their own health and wellbeing (17%) and the security of their employment (9%).

By comparison, on a national level, 53% answered that they were most concerned about the ‘health and wellbeing of family/ friends’, 17% said their ‘own health and wellbeing’, 8.6% ‘security of employment/ work’, 8.5% ‘impact on your children’s education’ and 6.7% ‘your own/ household finances’.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Of those who took part in the survey, 38% readers said their mental health had been ‘slightly affected’ by the lockdown.

Meanwhile 16% said their mental health had been ‘Severely affected’, 21% ‘Not much affected’ and 24% ‘Not at all affected’.

Nationally, 40% answered that their mental health was ‘slightly affected’, 12% ‘severely affected’, 23% ‘not much affected’ and 22% ‘not at all affected’.

When asked about the effects the lockdown has had on their relationship with a live-in partner or spouse, the majority of Worthing Herald readers who took part in the survey responded ‘It has not changed the relationship’ (40%).

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Meanwhile 10% said ‘It has brought us much closer together’ and 9% said ‘It has brought us slightly closer together’, while 7% said ‘It has pulled us apart slightly’ and 2% said ‘It has pulled us apart a lot’.

The national average of answers on this subject was: 43% ‘it has not changed the relationship’, 12% ‘it has brought us slightly closer together’, 10.5% ‘it has brought us much closer together, 4.9% ‘it has pulled us apart slightly’, 1.6% ‘it has pulled us apart a lot’ while 25.7% answered that they do not live with a partner or spouse.

During the course of this week we will be publishing more results of what local people had to say in our lockdown survey.

A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton:

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Stay safe, and best wishes.