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Empty streets in Oberammergau in March 2020: "Life in the pandemic was particularly difficult for women away from the cities"
Photo: Angelika Warmuth/ DPA
Women often perceived the first phase of the corona pandemic differently than men: They experienced the contact restrictions and uncertainties in spring 2021 as significantly more stressful - and were more afraid of getting sick than men (43 to 34 percent).
If the women lived in a rural area, the burden was even greater;
also for people who live in East Germany.
This is the result of an as yet unpublished study by the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB), which is available to SPIEGEL.
"Life in the pandemic was particularly difficult for women away from the cities," says Martin Bujard, research director at the BiB and one of the authors of the study.
On the other hand, more than half of the women were also able to see good sides of the pandemic, more so in cities than in the countryside - among men it was significantly fewer.
The researchers evaluated data from around 30,000 respondents from the family demographic panel FReDa (»Family Research and Demographic Analysis«).
Every six months, participants are asked how they are doing.
"People who can see positive aspects in the corona epidemic in addition to the burdens showed a significantly higher level of life satisfaction - and that contributes to resilience in the crisis," says Martin Bujard.
One concern was much more pronounced in men than in women: the fear of financial losses from the corona crisis.
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