Loneliness During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Change and Predictors of Change From Strict to Lifted Social Distancing Protocols

Hypotheses and research questions:

The hypotheses (Hs) and explorative research questions of the present study were:

H1: The lifting of the social distancing protocols are associated with decreased loneliness. Exploratory question 1. What is the proportion showing a reliable change in loneliness? Exploratory question 2. What are the associations of the stable (demographic) factors age, gender, educational level, civil status, employment status, psychiatric diagnosis status and refugee status with change in loneliness from T1 to T2? H2: Of psychological factors, higher level at T1 and less reduction from T1 to T2 in worry about job and/or economy, worry about health (health anxiety), maladaptive mental and behavioral coping, and negative and positive metacognitions will be associated with less reduction in loneliness from T1 to T2, above and beyond the influence of pre-existing stable risk factors.

Explorative question 3. What are the potential protective effects of doing new positive activities at home, experiencing nature and performing aerobic physical exercise? That is, is higher level at T1 and more increase from T1 and T2 of these activities related to more reduction of loneliness from T1 to T2? H3: More loneliness at T1 will be associated with less reduction of depressive and anxiety symptoms from T1 to T2. Less reduction in loneliness from T1 to T2 will be associated with less reduction of symptoms in the same time frame. Because variables related to loneliness may confound the relationship between loneliness and psychopathology symptoms, the variables showing significant associations for Hypothesis 2 and 3 will be controlled for. However, psychiatric diagnosis will not be included as a control variable because T1 level of depression and anxiety symptoms is controlled.

Study design and participants The design is a longitudinal observational survey of the general adult Norwegian population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eligible participants are all individuals of 18 years and above, who are living in Norway and thus experience identical distancing protocols, and who provide informed consent to participate in the study. The strict distancing protocols were implemented in Norway at March 12. 2020 and the first data collection in this period has already been done. It lasted seven days and was between March 31st 2020 and April 7th 2020. Thus, the strict protocols had been held constant during the two weeks prior to data collection, as well as during the data collection week. Furthermore, no new information was given by the government during this period with regard to changes of distancing protocols, keeping expectation effects constant. From June 15., the majority of the strict distancing protocols will be lifted in Norway, and lifted distancing protocol period is defined from this date. Data are set to be collected from the sample providing data in the first collection (N = 10 084), starting one week after the lifting data, that is, from 22th of June. The collection will last until enough data has been collected, but no longer than three weeks.