Department of Sociology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Department of Developmental Psychology, INVEST Flagship, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
PLoS One. 2023 May 26;18(5):e0286085. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0286085. eCollection 2023.
The COVID-19 measures raised societal concerns about increases in adolescents' loneliness. This study examined trajectories of adolescents' loneliness during the pandemic, and whether trajectories varied across students with different types of peer status and contact with friends. We followed 512 Dutch students (Mage = 11.26, SD = 0.53; 53.1% girls) from before the pandemic (Jan/Feb 2020), over the first lockdown (March-May 2020, measured retrospectively), until the relaxation of measures (Oct/Nov 2020). Latent Growth Curve Analyses (LGCA) showed that average levels of loneliness declined. Multi-group LGCA showed that loneliness declined mostly for students with a victimized or rejected peer status, which suggests that students with a low peer status prior to the lockdown may have found temporary relief from negative peer experiences at school. Students who kept all-round contact with friends during the lockdown declined in loneliness, whereas students who had little contact or who did not (video) call friends did not.
新冠疫情措施引起了社会对青少年孤独感增加的关注。本研究考察了青少年在疫情期间孤独感的变化轨迹，以及不同同伴地位类型和与朋友接触的学生之间的轨迹是否存在差异。我们跟踪了 512 名荷兰学生（Mage=11.26，SD=0.53；53.1%为女生），从疫情前（2020 年 1 月/2 月）开始，经历了第一次封锁（2020 年 3 月至 5 月，通过回顾性测量），直到措施放宽（2020 年 10 月/11 月）。潜在增长曲线分析（LGCA）显示，孤独感的平均水平下降了。多群组 LGCA 表明，孤独感下降主要发生在受欺负或被拒绝的同伴地位的学生中，这表明在封锁前地位较低的学生可能在学校里暂时缓解了来自负面同伴的经历。在封锁期间与朋友保持全面联系的学生孤独感下降，而与朋友联系较少或根本不（视频）打电话的学生则没有。
