Who is lonely in lockdown? Cross-cohort analyses of predictors of loneliness before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite ample research on the prevalence of specific psychiatric disorders during COVID-19, we know little about the broader psychological impact of the pandemic on a wider population. The study investigates the prevalence and predictors of general psychiatric disorders measured by the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and frequency of loneliness during COVID-19 in the United Kingdom, a country heavily hit by the pandemic. We analyzed 15,530 respondents of the first large-scale, nationally representative survey of COVID-19 in a developed country, the first wave of Understanding Society COVID-19 Study. Results show that 29.2% of the respondents score 4 or more, the caseness threshold, on the general psychiatric disorder measure, and 35.86% of the respondents sometimes or often feel lonely. Regression analyses show that those who have or had COVID-19-related symptoms are more likely to develop general psychiatric disorders and are lonelier. Women and young people have higher risks of general psychiatric disorders and loneliness, while having a job and living with a partner are protective factors. This study showcases the psychological impact, including general psychiatric disorders and loneliness, of broader members of the society during COVID-19 and the underlying social inequalities.

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Prevalence and predictors of general psychiatric disorders and loneliness during COVID-19 in the United Kingdom.

Terror management theory is focused on the role that awareness of death plays in diverse aspects of life. Here, we discuss the theory’s implications for understanding the widely varying ways in whi...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0022167820959488

Terror Management Theory and the COVID-19 Pandemic

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prompted people to face a distressing and unexpected situation. Uncertainty and social distancing changed people's behaviors, impacting on their feelings, daily habits, and social relationships, which are core elements in human well-being. In particular, restrictions due to the quarantine increased feelings of loneliness and anxiety. Within this context, the use of digital technologies has been recommended to relieve stress and anxiety and to decrease loneliness, even though the overall effects of social media consumption during pandemics still need to be carefully addressed. In this regard, social media use evidence risk and opportunities. In fact, according to a compensatory model of Internet-related activities, the online environment may be used to alleviate negative feelings caused by distressing life circumstances, despite potentially leading to negative outcomes. The present study examined whether individuals who were experiencing high levels of loneliness during the forced isolation for COVID-19 pandemic were more prone to feel anxious, and whether their sense of loneliness prompted excessive social media use. Moreover, the potentially mediating effect of excessive social media use in the relationship between perceived loneliness and anxiety was tested. A sample of 715 adults (71.5% women) aged between 18 and 72 years old took part in an online survey during the period of lockdown in Italy. The survey included self-report measures to assess perceived sense of loneliness, excessive use of social media, and anxiety. Participants reported that they spent more hours/day on social media during the pandemic than before the pandemic. We found evidence that perceived feelings of loneliness predicted both excessive social media use and anxiety, with excessive social media use also increasing anxiety levels. These findings suggest that isolation probably reinforced the individuals' sense of loneliness, strengthening the need to be part of virtual communities. However, the facilitated and prolonged access to social media during the COVID-19 pandemic risked to further increase anxiety, generating a vicious cycle that in some cases may require clinical attention.

/pdf/facing-loneliness-and-anxiety-during-the-covid-19-isolation-kdhmi0ewuo.pdf

Facing Loneliness and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Isolation: The Role of Excessive Social Media Use in a Sample of Italian Adults

The existential threat to small businesses, based on their crucial role in the economy, is behind the plethora of scholarly studies in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Examining the 15 contributions of the special issue on the “Economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on entrepreneurship and small businesses,” the paper comprises four parts: a systematic review of the literature on the effect on entrepreneurship and small businesses; a discussion of four literature strands based on this review; an overview of the contributions in this special issue; and some ideas for post-pandemic economic research.

/pdf/economic-effects-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-on-3y8k5vej4p.pdf

Economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on entrepreneurship and small businesses

The world is facing a global public health crisis for the last three months, as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerges as a menacing pandemic. Besides the rising number of cases and fatalities with this pandemic, there has also been significant socio-economic, political and psycho-social impact. Billions of people are quarantined in their own homes as nations have locked down to implement social distancing as a measure to contain the spread of infection. Those affected and suspicious cases are isolated. This social isolation leads to chronic loneliness and boredom, which if long enough can have detrimental effects on physical and mental well-being. The timelines of the growing pandemic being uncertain, the isolation is compounded by mass panic and anxiety. Crisis often affects the human mind in crucial ways, enhancing threat arousal and snowballing the anxiety. Rational and logical decisions are replaced by biased and faulty decisions based on mere ‘faith and belief’. This important social threat of a pandemic is largely neglected. We look at the impact of COVID-19 on loneliness across different social strata, its implications in the modern digitalized age and outline a way forward with possible solutions to the same. There is no doubt that national and global economies are suffering, the health systems are under severe pressure, mass hysteria has acquired a frantic pace and people’s hope and aspirations are taking a merciless beating. The uncertainty of a new and relatively unknown infection increases the anxiety, which gets compounded by isolation in lockdown. As global public health agencies like World Health Organization (WHO) and Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) struggle to contain the outbreak, social distancing is repeatedly suggested as one of the most useful preventive strategies. It has been used successfully in the past to slow or prevent community transmission during pandemics (WHO, 2019). While certain countries like China have just started recovering from their three-month lockdown, countries like Iran, Italy and South Korea have been badly hit irrespective of these measures and those like India have initiated nation-wide shutdown and curfews to prevent the community transmission of COVID-19. Ironically however, the social distancing is a misnomer, which implies physical separation to prevent the viral spread. The modern world has rarely been so isolated and restricted. Multiple restrictions have been imposed on public movement to contain the spread of the virus. People are forced to stay at home and are burdened with the heft of quarantine. Individuals are waking up every day wrapped in a freezing cauldron of social isolation, sheer boredom and a penetrating feeling of loneliness. The modern man has known little like this, in an age of rapid travel and communication. Though during the earlier outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Spanish flu, Ebola and Plague the world was equally shaken with millions of casualties, the dominance of technology was not as much as to make the distancing felt amplified (Smith, 2006). In this era of digitalization, social media, social hangouts, eateries, pubs, bars, malls, movie theatres to keep us distracted creating apparent ‘social ties’. Humankind has always known what to do next, with their lives generally following a regular trail. But this sudden cataclysmic turn of events have brought them face to face with a dire reckoning – how to live with oneself. It is indeed a frightening realization when a whole generation or two knows how to deal with a nuclear fallout but are at their wit’s end on how to spend time with oneself. Ironically, however, it has Social isolation in Covid-19: The impact of loneliness

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0020764020922269

Mayank Rai

Papers

Social isolation in Covid-19: The impact of loneliness.

"The Joker" does the Oscars right, but gets it wrong!