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Loneliness during COVID-19: Development and influencing factors

In early pandemic waves, when vaccination against COVID-19 was not yet an option, distancing and reduced social contact were the most effective measures to slow down the pandemic. Changes in frequency and forms of social contact have reduced the spread of the COVID-19 virus and thus saved lives, yet...

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Autores principales: Lampraki, Charikleia, Hoffman, Adar, Roquet, Angélique, Jopp, Daniela S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8967032/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35353850
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265900
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author Lampraki, Charikleia
Hoffman, Adar
Roquet, Angélique
Jopp, Daniela S.
author_facet Lampraki, Charikleia
Hoffman, Adar
Roquet, Angélique
Jopp, Daniela S.
author_sort Lampraki, Charikleia
collection PubMed
description In early pandemic waves, when vaccination against COVID-19 was not yet an option, distancing and reduced social contact were the most effective measures to slow down the pandemic. Changes in frequency and forms of social contact have reduced the spread of the COVID-19 virus and thus saved lives, yet there is increasing evidence for negative side effects such as mental health issues. In the present study, we investigate the development of loneliness and its predictors to examine the role of changes in social networks due to social distancing and other COVID-19-related life changes. A total of 737 participants (age range = 18–81 years) completed an online survey in three waves during the last quarter of 2020 at one-month intervals. Latent growth and multilevel modeling revealed that emotional loneliness increased over time, while social loneliness remained stable. Moreover, socially lonely individuals were likely to also develop emotional loneliness over time. Increased social distancing and sanitary measures were accompanied by decreased social interactions and loss of individuals considered SOS contacts and confidants. Changes in specific social network indicators were differentially associated with changes in emotional vs social loneliness: Loss of friends considered confidants was associated with increasing emotional loneliness, whereas loss of friends considered SOS contacts and reduced overall social interactions were related to increasing social loneliness. Lastly, individuals with more family-and-friend SOS contacts, more friends as confidants and an overall higher number of social interactions were more protected from feeling socially or emotionally lonely. Study findings enhance the understanding of underlying mechanisms differentially contributing to social and emotional loneliness and offer practical suggestions to reduce mental-health side effects of social distancing.
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spelling pubmed-89670322022-03-31 Loneliness during COVID-19: Development and influencing factors Lampraki, Charikleia Hoffman, Adar Roquet, Angélique Jopp, Daniela S. PLoS One Research Article In early pandemic waves, when vaccination against COVID-19 was not yet an option, distancing and reduced social contact were the most effective measures to slow down the pandemic. Changes in frequency and forms of social contact have reduced the spread of the COVID-19 virus and thus saved lives, yet there is increasing evidence for negative side effects such as mental health issues. In the present study, we investigate the development of loneliness and its predictors to examine the role of changes in social networks due to social distancing and other COVID-19-related life changes. A total of 737 participants (age range = 18–81 years) completed an online survey in three waves during the last quarter of 2020 at one-month intervals. Latent growth and multilevel modeling revealed that emotional loneliness increased over time, while social loneliness remained stable. Moreover, socially lonely individuals were likely to also develop emotional loneliness over time. Increased social distancing and sanitary measures were accompanied by decreased social interactions and loss of individuals considered SOS contacts and confidants. Changes in specific social network indicators were differentially associated with changes in emotional vs social loneliness: Loss of friends considered confidants was associated with increasing emotional loneliness, whereas loss of friends considered SOS contacts and reduced overall social interactions were related to increasing social loneliness. Lastly, individuals with more family-and-friend SOS contacts, more friends as confidants and an overall higher number of social interactions were more protected from feeling socially or emotionally lonely. Study findings enhance the understanding of underlying mechanisms differentially contributing to social and emotional loneliness and offer practical suggestions to reduce mental-health side effects of social distancing. Public Library of Science 2022-03-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8967032/ /pubmed/35353850 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265900 Text en © 2022 Lampraki et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lampraki, Charikleia
Hoffman, Adar
Roquet, Angélique
Jopp, Daniela S.
Loneliness during COVID-19: Development and influencing factors
title Loneliness during COVID-19: Development and influencing factors
title_full Loneliness during COVID-19: Development and influencing factors
title_fullStr Loneliness during COVID-19: Development and influencing factors
title_full_unstemmed Loneliness during COVID-19: Development and influencing factors
title_short Loneliness during COVID-19: Development and influencing factors
title_sort loneliness during covid-19: development and influencing factors
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8967032/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35353850
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265900
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