The COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium Study, 2020-2021

The COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC) Study aims to monitor and assess the long-term psychological, social, political and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the UK general population. A longitudinal, internet panel survey was designed to assess: (1) COVID-19 related knowledge, attitudes and behaviours, (2) the occurrence of common mental health disorders, as well as the role of (3) psychological factors, and (4) social and political attitudes in influencing the public’s response to the pandemic. The UK-strand of the C19PRC Study is the ‘parent’ strand of the Consortium upon which other countries (Republic of Ireland, Spain and Italy) model their survey design, content, and fieldwork procedures. The current datasets relates only to the first 6 waves of the UK C19PRC Study. Quota sampling was used to recruit a nationally representative sample of adults in terms of age, sex and household income. Fieldwork was conducted by the survey company Qualtrics. The first C19PRC survey was launched on 23 March 2020 (Wave 1), the day that a strict lockdown was enforced across the UK, and recruited 2025 UK adults. The current dataset also contains data from the subsequent five follow-up waves that were conducted in the UK: Wave 2, April/May 2020; Wave 3, July/August 2020; Wave 4, Nov/Dec 2020; Wave 5, March/April 2021; and Wave 6, Aug/Sept 2021. The baseline sample was representative of the UK population in relation to economic activity, ethnicity, and household composition. The C19PRC Study team worked closely with Qualtrics to maximise the retention of adults across waves to protect and sustain the longitudinal credentials of the survey, by recontacting those who had previously taken part in the study, while periodically conducting refreshment or ‘top-up’ sampling to recruit new respondents into the panel to match specific characteristics of adults who were lost to follow-up.
The C19PRC Study is a rich and detailed dataset that provides a convenient and valuable foundation from which to study the social, political, and health status of UK adults during an unprecedented time of change as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit. Detailed methodological reports for the C19PRC Study are available. Find out more about the study at https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/psychology-consortium-covid19 and via our Open Science Framework page: https://osf.io/v2zur/