These data were collected using the HEartS Professional Survey from performing arts workers in the United Kingdom in April–June 2020. HEartS Professional was designed as a multi-strategy data collection tool with two main purposes: (1) to chart working patterns, income, sources of support, and indicators of mental and social wellbeing in order to identify trends in the effects of the lockdown at the time and (2) to explore the individual work and wellbeing experiences of performing arts professionals in their own words, in order to identify the subjective effects of lockdown in terms of challenges and opportunities. The survey covers six areas: (1) demographics, (2) information on illness or self-isolation related to COVID-19, (3) work profiles and income, (4) changes to work profiles and income as a result of the pandemic, as well as sources of support, (5) open-response questions about work and wellbeing experiences of lockdown including challenges and opportunities, and (6) validated measures of health, wellbeing, and social connectedness. HEartS Professional is an adaptation of the HEartS Survey which charts the Health, Economic, and Social impacts of the ARTs (https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3r2280gdj). 

The sample was recruited through an online data collection platform, Qualtrics, from 1 April to 15 June 2020. 784 respondents started the survey and 447 completed it. Here we include the subset (n=385) of completed surveys that worked in the two performing arts areas: Music or sound arts (e.g. professional musician) and/or Performing arts (e.g. professional actor, dancer, circus performer etc.).

The survey contains the following sections:

1. Demographic and socioeconomic information: Where available standardised Census questions were used to collect data on ethnicity, geographic region, highest educational qualifications, gender, age, and household composition and income. 
2. Illness or self-isolation related to Covid-19: Newly created questions.
3. Work profiles and income: Newly created questions.
4. Changes to work profiles and income as a result of the pandemic and sources of support: Newly created questions and Inclusion of Other in Self Scale. 
5. Open-response questions about work and wellbeing experiences of lockdown, including challenges and opportunities: Newly created questions (NB. data for the open questions are not included for confidentiality reasons).
6. Measures of health, wellbeing, and social connectedness: The following validated and previously used measures are included

• • Mental Health Continuum Short Form 14-item scale
  • Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Short Form 8-item scale
  • Self-rated General Health item (from SF-36)
  • Physical activity scale recording mild, moderate, and vigorous physical activity frequency (from Whitehall II Study)
  • Social Connectedness Revised 15-item scale
  • UCLA Three-item Loneliness Scale, Single item loneliness question
  • De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Short Form 6-item scale 
  • 1-item questions on loneliness frequency and loneliness intensity

More information is provided in the Variables tab in the dataset. 

In line with Dryad's human subjects data protection rules, some personal data have been removed from this file. Variables for which data have been omitted are marked with an asterisk in the Variables tab in the dataset.

For any questions contact aaron.williamon@rcm.ac.uk.