Factors explaining social resilience against COVID-19: the case of Spain.

Between March and May, Spain was one of the hardest-hit European countries by the COVID-19 pandemic and registered one of the highest death rates in the world. Among other measures, the political response was a lockdown of more than three months that was applied by means of six fifteen-day extensions. The Spanish Sociological Research Centre (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas; CIS, in its Spanish acronym) carried out a survey in early June (n = 4,258) asking respondents about their rating of the response to the situation and their ability to cope with further extensions of the state of emergency. The concept of resilience is key to understanding this situation and the population's ability to face up to it. This paper analyses factors that help bolster resilience, which include confidence in the political leader and in the perception or rating of the measures adopted. The conclusion highlights the importance of political communication, both of leadership and of political measures, in fostering social resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]