Resilience during uncertainty? Greater social connectedness during COVID‐19 lockdown is associated with reduced distress and fatigue

Abstract

Background. Social connections are crucial for our health and well-being. This is especially true during times of high uncertainty and distress, such as during the COVID-19 lockdown. This period was characterized by unprecedented physical distancing (often communicated as social distancing) measures resulting in significant changes to people's usual social lives. Given the potential effects of this disruption on people's well-being, it is crucial to identify factors which are associated with negative health outcomes, and conversely, those that promote resilience during times of adversity. Aims. We examined the relationship between individuals' levels of social connectedness during lockdown and self-reported stress, worry, and fatigue. Method: Survey data were collected from 981 individuals in a representative sample of Austrian citizens. Data collection occurred during the last week of a six-week nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The final sample consisted of 902 participants. Participants were asked to complete validated questionnaires to assess levels of social connectedness as well as measures of perceived stress, worry-both general and COVID-19 specific-and symptoms of fatigue during the previous two weeks. Results. Our results demonstrate that greater social connectedness during the lockdown period was associated with lower levels of perceived stress, as well as general and COVID-19-specific worries. Furthermore, we found a negative relationship between This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Coronavirus stress and COVID-19 burnout among healthcare staffs: The mediating role of optimism and social connectedness

“…Correlational results indicated that coronavirus stress had a significant relationship with optimism, social connectedness, and COVID-19 burnout. These results are consistent with earlier research that reported relationship between coronavirus stress and COVID-19 burnout (Talaee et al, 2020;Yıldırım & Solmaz, 2020), coronavirus stress and optimism (Arslan et al, 2020;, coronavirus stress and social connectedness (Nitschke et al, 2020).…”

“…The role of social connectedness in protecting mental health occurred in various health crises including COVID-19 pandemic (Liotta et al, 2020). A high level of social connectedness during COVID-19 pandemic was related with reduced distress and fatigue (Nitschke et al, 2020). Therefore, social connectedness can play a protective or mitigative factor during a crisis impacting mental health of healthcare staffs.…”

Leveraging Emotional Intelligence Competencies for Sustainable Development of Higher Education Institutions in the New Normal

“…A positive outlook towards life helps one to combat the negative effects of stress (Taylor et al, 2010). Resilience is the ability to bounce back post adversity, and this EI dimension was found to help cope with the challenges created by the pandemic situations (Nitschke et al, 2020).…”

The Relations of Social Support and Social Connectedness to Well-being during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-cultural generalizability across 49 countries

“…On the other hand, social connectedness is essential to reduce social isolation and loneliness for older individuals (Cornwell et al, 2008;O'Rourke et al, 2018). Besides, social connectedness can protect individuals from stress-related consequences such as post-traumatic stress, blood pressure, and fatigue (Kintzle et al, 2018;Nitschke et al, 2020;Ong & Allaire, 2005).…”

“…Although some studies investigating social connectedness or the changes of social connectedness during the pandemic (Folk et al, 2020;Nitschke et al, 2020), these studies only used data in limited numbers of countries. Thus, the findings might have limitations to be generalized to other cultural groups.…”