The impact of social distancing on loneliness in times of the Covid-19 pandemic
Summary
The problem of loneliness has become more prevalent during the Covid-19 pandemic. Social distancing measures have been taken in order to battle the coronavirus. People have a hard time finding social support and fulfilling their desired levels of social interaction, now that social contact has been limited. This study investigates the relationship between individual social distancing behaviour and loneliness, and possible interacting effects of age, living situation and gender, performing a structural equation model analysis on the fourth wave of the Understanding America Study Covid dataset (n= 6344). Individual social distancing behaviour was not found to be associated with higher levels of loneliness. Being of young age, living alone and being of the female gender were associated with increased loneliness. As there was no significant relationship found between individual social distancing behaviour and loneliness, further research may look into other factors related to the elevated levels of loneliness during the Covid-19 pandemic.