No Substitute for In-Person Interaction: Changing Modes of Social Contact during the Coronavirus Pandemic and Effects on the Mental Health of Adults in the UK
Dados Bibliográficos
| AUTOR(ES) | |
|---|---|
| AFILIAÇÃO(ÕES) | The University of Manchester, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
| ANO | 2024 |
| TIPO | Artigo |
| PERIÓDICO | Sociology |
| ISSN | 0038-0385 |
| E-ISSN | 1469-8684 |
| EDITORA | Annual Reviews (United States) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00380385231172123 |
| CITAÇÕES | 1 |
| ADICIONADO EM | 2025-08-18 |
Resumo
Life-course theories on how social relationships affect mental health are limited in causal claims. The restrictions in social contact during the coronavirus pandemic provided a natural experiment that modified the frequency of in-person contact and allowed us to estimate the effect of changes in in-person social contact frequency on mental health in four large nationally representative age-cohorts of adults living in the UK. There was consistent evidence of a small but statistically significant effect of less frequent social contact on anxiety-depression. Online modes of social contact did not compensate for the restrictions in in-person social contact during the pandemic. Young adults who increased their online social media frequency during the pandemic experienced a deterioration in mental health. Life-course theories cannot ignore the importance of the mode of social contact for social relationships, especially during young adulthood.