Xu Jianjie, Ou Jingyi, Luo Shuyi, Wang Zhuojun, Chang Edward, Novak Claire, Shen Jingyi, Zheng Shaoying, Wang Yinan
Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
Front Psychol. 2020 Nov 6;11:566965. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566965. eCollection 2020.
The isolation necessary to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can give rise to anxiety, especially for lonely people who often feel upset without others' company. Although isolated from others, people can still receive support from others, which might lower their COVID-19 anxiety. To examine the relationship between loneliness, perceived social support, and anxiety, we measured 222 Chinese participants' (54.50% female, = 31.53, = 8.17) trait loneliness, chronic anxiety before the outbreak, COVID-19 anxiety at the peak and decline stages of COVID-19, and their perceived social support across the three time points. The results showed that people's perceived social support dramatically increased from the pre-pandemic to the peak COVID-19 stage, and remained stable during the decline of COVID-19 stage. In contrast, COVID-19 anxiety decreased from the peak to the decline stage. Further, perceived social support consistently moderated the relationship between loneliness with both chronic anxiety and COVID-19 anxiety. The current study provides initial evidence that perceived social support provides protection for lonely people in daily life as well as during unexpected disasters, which will contribute to finding ways to alleviate lonely people's anxiety during this global health crisis.
为防止2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）传播而采取的隔离措施可能会引发焦虑，尤其是对于那些独处时常常感到不安的孤独者而言。尽管与他人隔离，但人们仍能获得他人的支持，这可能会降低他们对COVID-19的焦虑。为了研究孤独感、感知到的社会支持与焦虑之间的关系，我们测量了222名中国参与者（女性占54.50%，平均年龄 = 31.53岁，标准差 = 8.17）的特质孤独感、疫情爆发前的慢性焦虑、COVID-19高峰期和缓解期的COVID-19焦虑，以及他们在这三个时间点感知到的社会支持。结果显示，从疫情前到COVID-19高峰期，人们感知到的社会支持显著增加，在COVID-19缓解期保持稳定。相比之下，COVID-19焦虑从高峰期到缓解期有所下降。此外，感知到的社会支持始终调节着孤独感与慢性焦虑和COVID-19焦虑之间的关系。本研究提供了初步证据，表明感知到的社会支持在日常生活以及突发灾难期间为孤独者提供了保护，这将有助于找到在这场全球健康危机中减轻孤独者焦虑的方法。
