The trajectory of loneliness in response to COVID-19.

Abstract

Aging with trauma across the lifetime and experiencing trauma in old age: Vulnerability and resilience intertwined. In K. E. Cherry (Ed.), Traumatic stress and long-term recovery: Coping with disasters and other negative life events (pp. 293-308). Springer.

The Effect of COVID-19 on Loneliness in the Elderly. An Empirical Comparison of Pre-and Peri-Pandemic Loneliness in Community-Dwelling Elderly

“…Our findings are in accordance with a Dutch online study (van Tilburg et al, 2020), which showed that elderly community-dwelling citizens reported elevated loneliness during the pandemic and its associated measures. Furthermore, they are also in accordance with the aforementioned American study (Luchetti et al, 2020) which reported a slight increase in loneliness among the group of elderly Americans (65+) after the introduction of social distancing measures, which then remained stable over time. As our study only uses the data of one peri-pandemic survey, we cannot remark upon changes over time during Covid-19 measures but rather compare data from before and during Covid-19 crisis and its associated measures.…”

“…Keeping the small effect size in mind, this result could be indicative of a negative trend of distancing measures leading to more loneliness in an elderly population. This negative development of loneliness had been suggested in many scientific and popular communications, but has, to our knowledge, not been analyzed with the exception of two prior studies (Luchetti et al, 2020;van Tilburg et al, 2020). Our findings are in accordance with a Dutch online study (van Tilburg et al, 2020), which showed that elderly community-dwelling citizens reported elevated loneliness during the pandemic and its associated measures.…”

“…Additional research is particularly important, as loneliness relates to negative health and well-being outcomes (Cohen-Mansfield et al, 2016;Valtorta et al, 2016), making increased loneliness a general issue. Although previous research concerning loneliness in younger age brackets has been mixed (Losada-Baltar et al, 2020;Luchetti et al, 2020;Pearman et al, 2020), this study shows a negative trend in the substantial group of older adults, which must be considered and possibly prevented in future handling of the ongoing pandemic, as even small differences in loneliness have been shown to affect health and well-being outcomes (Hawkley and Cacioppo, 2010). A slight rise in loneliness during the time of Covid-19 safety measures may therefore have dire consequences in the short and long term.…”

The role of online social comparison as a protective factor for psychological wellbeing: A longitudinal study during the COVID-19 quarantine

“…Our findings also add to the previous literature on the negative consequences of COVID-19 by showing an increasing trend in feelings of loneliness and a decreasing trend in levels of life satisfaction. These results are only partially consistent with those reported in some recent studies from China and USA ( Luchetti et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 ) which monitored the trend of distress or loneliness during the COVID-19 quarantine condition, and did not detect any substantial change in these variables during the quarantine.…”

Depression, Anxiety and Stress Symptomatology among Swedish University Students Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cohort Study.

“…This might lessen the contrast when comparing one's own social life to that of others, making the experience of loneliness somewhat less emotionally painful. Our results dovetails with a recent American study, showing increases in perceived social support and no mean changes in loneliness during the rst months of the COVID-19 pandemic [32]. The more favorable trajectory of those with poor sleep quality, might be explained by changes in day-to-day life brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic that makes poor sleep quality easier to deal with.…”