| Popis: |
Who thrives while socially distancing? For this descriptive, exploratory study, we polled a sample of over 500 participants from the United States on April 8, 2020—in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic when practicing social distancing was at its peak. Above and beyond other social and nonsocial activities, living and employment arrangements, personality traits, demographics, and other variables, people who spent more time interacting with close others—either in person or online—felt more socially connected. However, only interacting with close others in person, but not online, predicted greater positive affect. In contrast, people who spent more time interacting with weak ties online experienced greater negative affect and more stress. Looking at specific interaction partners, we found that people who interacted with their relatives, romantic partners, and even coworkers/classmates felt more socially connected. Living arrangements mattered little beyond people’s social interactions, except for living with one’s children, which predicted greater stress. Certain social online activities, including playing games with close ties and group/club meetings predicted greater positive affect. Amongst nonsocial activities, active leisure like exercise emerged as a robust predictor of positive affect, whereas passive leisure like watching TV predicted greater negative affect. Even during a historic pandemic and unprecedented conditions of social distancing, then, the factors that predict well-being are much the same as those already established in the literature. Indeed, much like in-person interactions, online social interactions predict greater social connectedness. However, unlike in-person interactions, online interactions simultaneously predict more negative affect and more stress. |
