IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceps/v93y2024ics0038012124001125.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Alleviating loneliness during COVID-19: The impact of neighbor cohesion and social connections in England

Author

Listed:
  • Bello, Piera
  • Di Novi, Cinzia
  • Martini, Gianmaria
  • Sturaro, Caterina

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of pre-pandemic levels of social interactions in mitigating the impact of mobility restrictions, implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19, on feelings of loneliness. Using individual-level data from the U.K. Household Longitudinal Study (U.K.HLS) on ’Understanding Society,’ we analyze the relationship between loneliness and both neighborhood social cohesion and individual social networks, both before and during the pandemic. Our analysis reveals that both social cohesion in the neighborhood where people live and good social relations (i.e., having close friends) play a protective role in alleviating the adverse effects of pandemic-related restrictions on loneliness. On the contrary, we do not find evidence of benefits coming from time spent on digital social networks. This underscores the critical importance of fostering and maintaining in person social connections, even in the face of challenges posed by the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Bello, Piera & Di Novi, Cinzia & Martini, Gianmaria & Sturaro, Caterina, 2024. "Alleviating loneliness during COVID-19: The impact of neighbor cohesion and social connections in England," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:93:y:2024:i:c:s0038012124001125
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2024.101913
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038012124001125
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.seps.2024.101913?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. García-Prado, Ariadna & González, Paula & Rebollo-Sanz, Yolanda F., 2022. "Lockdown strictness and mental health effects among older populations in Europe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    2. Ami Rokach & Tricia Orzeck & Janice Cripps & Katica Lackovic-Grgin & Zvjezdan Penezic, 2001. "The Effects of Culture on the Meaning of Loneliness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 17-31, January.
    3. Louise C. Hawkley & Mary Elizabeth Hughes & Linda J. Waite & Christopher M. Masi & Ronald A. Thisted & John T. Cacioppo, 2008. "From Social Structural Factors to Perceptions of Relationship Quality and Loneliness: The Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 63(6), pages 375-384.
    4. Verena H Menec & Nancy E Newall & Corey S Mackenzie & Shahin Shooshtari & Scott Nowicki, 2020. "Examining social isolation and loneliness in combination in relation to social support and psychological distress using Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging (CLSA) data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-20, March.
    5. Di Novi, Cinzia, 2013. "The indirect effect of fine particulate matter on health through individuals’ life-style," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 27-36.
    6. O'Donnell, Owen & van Doorslaer, Eddy & Rannan-Eliya, Ravi P. & Somanathan, Aparnaa & Adhikari, Shiva Raj & Akkazieva, Baktygul & Harbianto, Deni & Garg, Charu C. & Hanvoravongchai, Piya & Herrin, Ale, 2008. "Who pays for health care in Asia?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 460-475, March.
    7. Richard Forgette & Bryan Dettrey & Mark Boening & David Swanson, 2009. "Before, Now, and After: Assessing Hurricane Katrina Relief," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 28(1), pages 31-44, February.
    8. Lee Cronbach, 1951. "Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 16(3), pages 297-334, September.
    9. Debanjan Banerjee & Mayank Rai, 2020. "Social isolation in Covid-19: The impact of loneliness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(6), pages 525-527, September.
    10. Robinette, Jennifer W. & Bostean, Georgiana & Glynn, Laura M. & Douglas, Jason A. & Jenkins, Brooke N. & Gruenewald, Tara L. & Frederick, David A., 2021. "Perceived neighborhood cohesion buffers COVID-19 impacts on mental health in a United States sample," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 285(C).
    11. O'Donnell, James & Cárdenas, Diana & Orazani, Nima & Evans, Ann & Reynolds, Katherine J., 2022. "The longitudinal effect of COVID-19 infections and lockdown on mental health and the protective effect of neighbourhood social relations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan & Yoshihiko Kadoya, 2021. "Loneliness during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison between Older and Younger People," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-15, July.
    2. Jenny Gierveld & Pearl A. Dykstra & Niels Schenk, 2012. "Living arrangements, intergenerational support types and older adult loneliness in Eastern and Western Europe," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 27(7), pages 167-200.
    3. Thomas Hansen & Britt Slagsvold, 2016. "Late-Life Loneliness in 11 European Countries: Results from the Generations and Gender Survey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 129(1), pages 445-464, October.
    4. Honghui Pan & Tineke Fokkema & Lise Switsers & Sarah Dury & Sylvia Hoens & Liesbeth De Donder, 2021. "Older Chinese migrants in coronavirus pandemic: exploring risk and protective factors to increased loneliness," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 207-215, June.
    5. Yoon, Junghyun & Lee, Hee Yong & Dinwoodie, John, 2015. "Competitiveness of container terminal operating companies in South Korea and the industry–university–government network," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1-14.
    6. Md. Mominur Rahman & Bilkis Akhter, 2021. "The impact of investment in human capital on bank performance: evidence from Bangladesh," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Amolo Elvis Juma Amolo & Charles Mallans Rambo & Charles Misiko Wafula, 2024. "Hedging Derivatives and Performance of Renewable Energy Projects in Kenya," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 11(8), pages 619-630, August.
    8. Deepak, 2016. "Antecedent Value of Professional Commitment and Job Involvement in Determining Job Satisfaction," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 41(2), pages 154-164, May.
    9. Marianela Denegri & María Baeza & Natalia Salinas-Oñate & Verónica Peñaloza & Horacio Miranda & Ligia Orellana, 2014. "Materialism in Pedagogy Students in Chile," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 505-521, June.
    10. Tomislav Letnik & Katja Hanžič & Giuseppe Luppino & Matej Mencinger, 2022. "Impact of Logistics Trends on Freight Transport Development in Urban Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-18, December.
    11. Zhihui Wang & Liangzhen Nie & Eila Jeronen & Lihua Xu & Meiai Chen, 2023. "Understanding the Environmentally Sustainable Behavior of Chinese University Students as Tourists: An Integrative Framework," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-17, February.
    12. Amolo Elvis Juma Amolo, PhD & Charles Mallans Rambo, PhD & Charles Misiko Wafula, PhD, 2021. "Alternative Risk Transfer and Performance of Power Projects in Kenya," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 8(12), pages 28-35, December.
    13. Robert P. Garrett Jr. & Jeffrey G. Covin, 2015. "Internal Corporate Venture Operations Independence and Performance: A Knowledge–Based Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(4), pages 763-790, July.
    14. Davis Tharayil, 2012. "Developing the University of the Philippines Loneliness Assessment Scale: A Cross-Cultural Measurement," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 106(2), pages 307-321, April.
    15. Kang, Min Jung & Park, Heejun, 2011. "Impact of experience on government policy toward acceptance of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in Korea," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3465-3475, June.
    16. Vanessa Ibáñez-del Valle & Silvia Corchón & Georgiana Zaharia & Omar Cauli, 2022. "Social and Emotional Loneliness in Older Community Dwelling-Individuals: The Role of Socio-Demographics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-13, December.
    17. chatterjee, susmita, 2017. "Empowerment translated to transition," MPRA Paper 80067, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Parry, Glenn & Bustinza, Oscar F. & Vendrell-Herrero, Ferran, 2012. "Servitisation and value co-production in the UK music industry: An empirical study of Consumer Attitudes," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 320-332.
    19. Ale Ebrahim, Nader & Ahmed Shamsuddin & Abdul Rashid, Salwa Hanim & Taha, Zahari, 2012. "Effective Virtual Teams for New Product Development," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 7(21), pages 1971-1985.
    20. Andreea-Ionela Puiu & Anca Monica Ardeleanu & Camelia Cojocaru & Anca Bratu, 2021. "Exploring the Effect of Status Quo, Innovativeness, and Involvement Tendencies on Luxury Fashion Innovations: The Mediation Role of Status Consumption," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-18, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; Lockdown; Loneliness; Neighborhood social cohesion; Social relations;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:93:y:2024:i:c:s0038012124001125. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/seps .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.