Critique of the study: “Psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines”

The study conducted by Tee et al. (2000) worked towards showing the psychological

state of selected Filipinos after the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic. They mentioned

how similar outbreaks before cause generalized fear to the public and caused fear- related

behaviors. Their study aimed to show if the same can be said for individuals that lived through

the COVID-19 pandemic and distinguish factors that may have contributed to their psychological

stress. It was also established that there are only few existing literatures regarding this subject

and that one of the objectives of this research was to fill that gap.

To gather their data, the researchers decided to upload a survey online from March 28 to

April 2020. No reasoning was provided for the time frame they used; it would have been

beneficial to know why they decided to gather information during the early stages of the

pandemic to understand the significance of it to the results. They also decided to use snowball

sampling as their sampling technique, while this is understandable since they used an online

survey to gather information, this approach may introduce a possibility for bias and error in their

gathered data. The use of this method may also result in findings that do not represent the

general population since it will be difficult to control and monitor. Discussing these limitations

would have been helpful in understanding the results of the study.

As mentioned earlier, the researchers decided to use an online English survey to gather

information for the study. The survey was consisted of various information like socio-

demographics, personal symptoms, information about COVID-19 and the validated instruments.

The use of the English language for their survey in a predominantly non-English speaking

country like the Philippines may have an impact on the responses they got. It would have been

useful if this possibility was discussed and if literature was provided to provide more context and

to justify the decision.

The results of the study provided valuable insights to the state of the general population

in the Philippines during the early stages of the pandemic. It showed that there are groups that
are more vulnerable to psychological stress. The role of healthcare workers and importance of

having access to information was also highlighted. The study also showed the positive effect of

precautionary measures and the negative impact of social restrictions to individual’s

psychological status during this time. The study would have benefited if the researchers inquired

more on other possible reasons for the variations in the psychological outcomes. Also, since the

research focused on the early stages of the pandemic, further studies would be essential to see

if these results may change as the pandemic continues to progress.