The impact of social isolation and changes in work patterns on ongoing thought during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic led to lockdowns in countries across the world, changing the lives of billions of people. The United Kingdom’s first national lockdown, for example, restricted people’s ability to socialize and work. The current study examined how changes to socializing and working during this lockdown impacted ongoing thought patterns in daily life. We compared the prevalence of thought patterns between two independent real-world, experience-sampling cohorts, collected before and during lockdown. In both samples, young (18 to 35 y) and older (55+ y) participants completed experience-sampling measures five times daily for 7 d. Dimension reduction was applied to these data to identify common “patterns of thought.” Linear mixed modeling compared the prevalence of each thought pattern 1) before and during lockdown, 2) in different age groups, and 3) across different social and activity contexts. During lockdown, when people were alone, social thinking was reduced, but on the rare occasions when social interactions were possible, we observed a greater increase in social thinking than prelockdown. Furthermore, lockdown was associated with a reduction in future-directed problem solving, but this thought pattern was reinstated when individuals engaged in work. Therefore, our study suggests that the lockdown led to significant changes in ongoing thought patterns in daily life and that these changes were associated with changes to our daily routine that occurred during lockdown.

Task-unrelated thought increases after consumption of COVID-19 and general news

“…Importantly we extend these findings demonstrating a relationship between current concerns and TUTs beyond the lab setting into everyday life. We also extend recent findings reporting that consumption of media in general during the COVID-19 pandemic changes thought patterns (McKeown et al, 2021 ). Our results additionally complement recent work showing that people who are worried about the pandemic report higher rates of TUTs, including TUTs specifically related to COVID-19 (Jun et al, 2021 ).…”

Pandemic Fatigue: A Concept Analysis

“…Lockdowns have been imposed globally since the pandemic, resulting in alteration in usual routine and reduced opportunity to socialize. [23] Since nurses are considered front-line workers in the battle to stop the spread of the disease, they are also at risk of contracting it and spreading the disease to the family and community. Consequently, they opt to keep isolated from their loved ones.…”

Latent Profile Analysis to Survey Positive Mental Health and Well-Being: A Pilot Investigation Insight Tunisian Facebook Users

“…Similarly, other disorders were revealed after the onset of symptoms such as fever, tiredness, and prolonged dry coughs ( 8 ), as were social avoidance, anxiety, concern of illness, and global panic ( 9 ). Likewise, security guidelines have forced governments to take precautions that ensure physical distancing and self-isolation, such as closing schools, universities, recreational parks, quarantine and firewalls ( 10 , 11 ). These measures have influenced the quality of life of the majority of people and have resulted in a systematic negative impact on public mental health ( 12 ).…”