Dornsife Center for Self-Report Science, Center for Economic and Social Research, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2022 Apr 29;17(4):e0267790. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267790. eCollection 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many different facets of life. The infectious nature of the disease has led to significant changes in social interactions in everyday life. The present study examined how older adults' patterns of everyday momentary social interactions (i.e., with no one, partner, family, and friends) and their affect varied across the early stages of the pandemic and whether the magnitude of affective benefits associated with social interactions changed across time. A total of 188 adults aged 50 or above (Mage = 62.05) completed momentary assessments in early March, late March, May, and July 2020. Overall, older adults spent more time in solitude and less time interacting with their friends after the declaration of the pandemic. Further, negative affect (NA) spiked after the pandemic declaration and then returned to pre-pandemic level. Finally, momentary interactions with close social ties were consistently associated with higher positive affect (PA) and lower NA whereas momentary solitude was associated with lower PA, but not related to NA. The magnitude of associations between specific social interactions (or solitude) and affect varied across time, and the onset of the pandemic appeared associated with this variation. During the presumably most stressful period, solitude was not associated with lower PA and family interaction was not associated with higher PA as they were at other times. Further, interactions with friends seemed to have diminished affective benefits following the onset of the pandemic.
COVID-19 大流行对生活的许多方面都产生了影响。该疾病的传染性导致日常生活中社交互动发生了重大变化。本研究考察了老年人日常瞬间社交互动（即与任何人、伴侣、家人和朋友都没有互动）的模式及其情绪如何在大流行的早期阶段发生变化，以及与社交互动相关的情感益处的幅度是否随时间而变化。共有 188 名 50 岁及以上的成年人（Mage=62.05）在 2020 年 3 月初、3 月底、5 月和 7 月完成了瞬间评估。总体而言，大流行宣布后，老年人独处的时间更多，与朋友互动的时间更少。此外，大流行宣布后，消极情绪（NA）飙升，然后恢复到大流行前的水平。最后，与亲密社交关系的瞬间互动始终与更高的积极情绪（PA）和更低的 NA 相关，而瞬间独处与更低的 PA 相关，与 NA 无关。特定社交互动（或独处）和情感之间的关联幅度随时间而变化，大流行的开始似乎与这种变化有关。在推测的最紧张时期，独处与较低的 PA 无关，与家人的互动也与较高的 PA 无关，而在其他时间则与较高的 PA 无关。此外，朋友之间的互动似乎在大流行开始后，情感益处有所减少。
