The effects of social interactions on momentary stress and mood during COVID-19 lockdowns

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Social interactions are vital for our wellbeing, particularly during times of stress. PURPOSE: We investigated the real-time effect of social interactions on changes in stress and mood using an ecological momentary assessment approach in 732 participants during COVID-19 lockdown in spring 2020 and in a subsample of these participants (n= 281) during a further lockdown in winter 2020. METHODS: Participants reported their stress and mood in a smartphone app five times per day for seven days and indicated the nature and frequency of their recent social interactions. RESULTS: Overall, social interactions and their frequency were associated with enhanced momentary mood. In person interactions, but not those that were not in person (e.g., via audio, video, or text), were linked to lower stress, especially if they were with closer others. Individuals scoring high on trait loneliness benefited least from social interactions in terms of their momentary mood, whereas those scoring high on trait depressive symptoms benefited the most. Our key findings replicated across both lockdowns. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the benefits and limits of social interactions for improving momentary mood and stress during psychologically demanding periods and highlight how clinically relevant individual differences can modulate these effects.

Momentary social interactions and affect in later life varied across the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic

“…This is consistent with existing theories that close social interaction is a fundamental human need and that older adults' close social relationships are generally emotionally satisfying [4,9]. Our findings also echo the empirical within-person evidence that social interactions are central to wellbeing [29], which also held true during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic [48,49]. It is also important to note that moments not interacting with anyone were associated with lower PA, but not higher NA.…”

The Dynamics of Social Experiences in the Context of Extended Lockdown

“…Alternatively, lockdown may exacerbate the impact of having social interactions on loneliness (Kuczynski et al, 2022), such that people benefit from social interaction most when they are isolated from others. Indeed, research points to the importance of staying socially connected while physically isolating: social interaction quantity and quality have been shown to predict better mental health outcomes during COVID-19 (Forbes et al, 2021;Nitschke et al, 2021;Sommerlad et al, 2021).…”

Homeostatic regulation of energetic arousal during acute social isolation-converging evidence from the lab and the field

“…These findings suggest that social interactions, or simply the presence of others, can be invigorating. This could be especially important in everyday life, where having the potential to interact with someone, particularly in person (Forbes et al, 2021), may be an important factor for mitigating the detrimental effects of social isolation on energy levels. Indeed, we found that participants who lived alone during the lockdown were most affected by isolation in terms of their energy levels compared to those who lived with others.…”

“…Secondly, during the baseline day, participants in the lab engaged in social interactions remotely rather than in person. Given the importance of face-to-face interactions for our daily stress and mood (Forbes et al, 2021), future isolation studies could reveal more robust changes in psychological states following isolation, if participants are able to interact in person during the baseline session. However, it is worth emphasising that we found reliable effects of social isolation on energy despite our baseline condition including remote, rather than in person, interactions.…”