Exploring Social Exclusion Perceptions Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights from Europe

Elena Ambrosetti , La Sapienza, University of Rome
Marina Zannella, ISTAT
James R. Edwards, SINUS Institute

This paper aims to study the self-perceived social exclusion of EU citizens during the Covid-19 emergency, taking into account their socio-demographic characteristics as well as the specific contexts of their country of residence. For this purpose, we use data from the third round of the Eurofund Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey, conducted between February and March 2021, when countries were still dealing with various levels of lockdown and individuals had been living with COVID-19 restrictions for almost a year. We use multilevel logistic regression. Our dependent variable is a binary indicator of social exclusion. Building on existing evidence on the socio-demographic variables related to social exclusion, we consider the following covariates at the individual level: gender, age group, highest completed level of education, activity status, area of residence, cohabitation with spouse/partner, presence of children up to 17 in the household, presence of disability or chronic illness. At the country level, on the other hand, we consider two explanatory variables aimed, respectively, at assessing the general levels of trust in the government and the efficiency of government support measures taken to deal with the health and socio-economic consequences of Covid-19. Preliminary findings document a different gradient of social vulnerability across population groups. Our results indicate that social exclusion strongly depended on the country context in addition to individual characteristics and circumstances.

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 Presented in Session 18. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Health, Wellbeing and Morbidity