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Love under lockdown: How changes in time with partner impacted stress and relationship outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic

With the onset of COVID-19, governments around much of the world implemented strict social distancing and stay-at-home orders that profoundly affected the amount of time many couples were spending together. In the present research, we examined whether perceptions of a change in time spent with a par...

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Autores principales: Derbyshire, Kaitlin, Thai, Sabrina, Midgley, Claire, Lockwood, Penelope
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10009005/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37744688
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02654075231162599
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author Derbyshire, Kaitlin
Thai, Sabrina
Midgley, Claire
Lockwood, Penelope
author_facet Derbyshire, Kaitlin
Thai, Sabrina
Midgley, Claire
Lockwood, Penelope
author_sort Derbyshire, Kaitlin
collection PubMed
description With the onset of COVID-19, governments around much of the world implemented strict social distancing and stay-at-home orders that profoundly affected the amount of time many couples were spending together. In the present research, we examined whether perceptions of a change in time spent with a partner were associated with stress, and whether stress levels in turn predicted relationship commitment and satisfaction, both in the short term (Time 1) and longer term (Time 2; i.e., after 10 months). Results indicated partial mediation, such that less (vs. more) time spent with the partner was associated with greater stress at Time 1, which in turn partly accounted for lower commitment and relationship satisfaction both at Time 1, and satisfaction at Time 2. Less (vs. more) time spent with partner at Time 1 also predicted a greater likelihood of relationship dissolution at Time 2, again partially mediated by stress. An increase in quality time spent together at Time 2 predicted stress and relationship outcomes over and above the change in time spent together more generally. This research has important implications for understanding the ongoing effects of the pandemic on romantic relationships. In addition, this study provides new evidence regarding how changes in time spent with a partner are associated with stress and subsequent relationship outcomes.
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spelling pubmed-100090052023-03-16 Love under lockdown: How changes in time with partner impacted stress and relationship outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic Derbyshire, Kaitlin Thai, Sabrina Midgley, Claire Lockwood, Penelope J Soc Pers Relat Articles With the onset of COVID-19, governments around much of the world implemented strict social distancing and stay-at-home orders that profoundly affected the amount of time many couples were spending together. In the present research, we examined whether perceptions of a change in time spent with a partner were associated with stress, and whether stress levels in turn predicted relationship commitment and satisfaction, both in the short term (Time 1) and longer term (Time 2; i.e., after 10 months). Results indicated partial mediation, such that less (vs. more) time spent with the partner was associated with greater stress at Time 1, which in turn partly accounted for lower commitment and relationship satisfaction both at Time 1, and satisfaction at Time 2. Less (vs. more) time spent with partner at Time 1 also predicted a greater likelihood of relationship dissolution at Time 2, again partially mediated by stress. An increase in quality time spent together at Time 2 predicted stress and relationship outcomes over and above the change in time spent together more generally. This research has important implications for understanding the ongoing effects of the pandemic on romantic relationships. In addition, this study provides new evidence regarding how changes in time spent with a partner are associated with stress and subsequent relationship outcomes. SAGE Publications 2023-03-09 2023-09 /pmc/articles/PMC10009005/ /pubmed/37744688 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02654075231162599 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Articles
Derbyshire, Kaitlin
Thai, Sabrina
Midgley, Claire
Lockwood, Penelope
Love under lockdown: How changes in time with partner impacted stress and relationship outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic
title Love under lockdown: How changes in time with partner impacted stress and relationship outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full Love under lockdown: How changes in time with partner impacted stress and relationship outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr Love under lockdown: How changes in time with partner impacted stress and relationship outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Love under lockdown: How changes in time with partner impacted stress and relationship outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_short Love under lockdown: How changes in time with partner impacted stress and relationship outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort love under lockdown: how changes in time with partner impacted stress and relationship outcomes during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10009005/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37744688
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02654075231162599
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