1. Dreaming in Adolescents During the COVID-19 Health Crisis: Survey Among a Sample of European School Students
- Author
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Ana Guerrero-Gomez, Isabel Nöthen-Garunja, Michael Schredl, Annelore Homberg, Maria Vulcan, Asja Brusić, Caterina Bonizzi, and Cecilia Iannaco
- Subjects
school students ,COVID-19 health crisis ,lockdown ,dreaming ,nightmares ,emotional distress ,Psychology ,BF1-990 - Abstract
According to the continuity hypothesis of dreaming and contemporary psychodynamic approaches, dreams reflect waking life. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and dreaming in adolescents. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Italy, Romania and Croatia involving 2,105 secondary school students (69% girls, mean age 15.6 ± 2.1 years; 31% boys, mean age 15.1 ± 2.2 years; mean age of whole sample 15.4 ± 2.1 years). No substantial differences between countries were found. Thirty-one percent of the participants reported heightened dream recall, 18% noticed an increase in nightmares during the lockdown, and 15% of the provided dreams (n = 498) included pandemic-related content. The results indicate that subjective emotional reactions to lockdown had a significantly higher correlation to dreaming than objective distress (i.e., illness or death of a close one because of COVID-19). These findings suggest that attention to dreams should be included in preventive programs for adolescents with pandemic-related stress.
- Published
- 2021
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