Safe but lonely? Loneliness, mental health symptoms and COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led governments worldwide to implement unprecedented response strategies. While crucial to limiting the spread of the virus, “social distancing” may lead to severe psychological consequences, especially in lonely individuals. We used cross-sectional (n=380) and longitudinal (n=74) designs to investigate the links between loneliness, mental health symptoms (MHS) and COVID-19 risk perception and affective response in young adults who implemented social distancing during the first two weeks of the state of epidemic threat in Poland. Loneliness was correlated with MHS and with affective response to COVID-19’s threat to health. However, increased worry about the social isolation and heightened risk perception for financial problems was observed in lonelier individuals. The cross-lagged influence of the initial affective response to COVID-19 on subsequent levels of loneliness was also found. Thus, the reciprocal connections between loneliness and COVID-19 response may be of crucial importance for MHS during COVID-19 crisis.

Loneliness in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: Cross-sectional results from the COVID-19 Psychological Wellbeing Study

“…Furthermore loneliness in the current pandemic context is associated with increased depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation in the US [36,43], and with greater depression, anxiety, and stress in the UK [44]. In Poland, loneliness had a negative impact on mental health symptoms and increased participants' affective response to aspects of the COVID-19 crisis [42].…”

“…During physical distancing in Spain, younger people, females, those with less social contact and lower sleep quality reported higher loneliness [21]. Financial concerns and worries about the prolonged impact of quarantine are associated with loneliness; as are feelings of fear, boredom, and uncertainty [1,26,42]. Studies have found that more frequent in-person contact mitigates the impact of the pandemic on loneliness [37,38], and that living with others, larger social network size, and greater social support are protective factors [40].…”

Loneliness in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: Cross-sectional results from The COVID-19 Psychological Wellbeing Study

“…Furthermore loneliness in the current pandemic context is associated with increased depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation in the US (Kantor & Kantor, 2020;Killgore et al, 2020), and with greater depression, anxiety, and stress in the UK (Jia et al, 2020). In Poland, loneliness had a negative impact on mental health symptoms and increased participants' affective response to aspects of the COVID-19 crisis (Okruszek et al, 2020).…”

“…During social distancing in Spain, younger people, females, those with less social contact and lower sleep quality reported higher loneliness (Losada-Baltar et al, 2020). Financial concerns and worries about the prolonged impact of quarantine are also associated with loneliness; as are feelings of fear, boredom, and uncertainty (Brooks et al, 2020;Holmes et al, 2020;Okruszek et al, 2020). Studies have found that more frequent in-person contact mitigates the impact of the pandemic on loneliness (Rosenberg et al, 2020;Tull et al, 2020), and that living with others, larger social network size and greater social support are protective factors (Bu et al, 2020b).…”

Iriss ESSS Outline: Covid-19, social isolation, and loneliness

“…may be crucial to mental health ( Okruszek, 2020 ). Pandemic conditions, repeated media consumption and constant health messaging around Covid-19 can have an exacerbating effect on the mental health of those in isolation ( Holmes, 2020 ).…”