As we finally come out of the pandemic, it is important to look back on the impacts of lockdowns. The lockdowns and pandemic in general have made people sit around and isolate themselves away for over two years. This isolation has left people to receive less affection than usual, and increased their loneliness. Humans have an inherent need for affectionate communication, the negative impacts of decreased communication during the pandemic is what researchers want to explore.

The study was conducted on 690 US individuals (56.3% men, 43.6% women) aged between 29 and 78, at three distinct times. These three times were May 4th 2020 with 94% of respondents being on stay-at-home orders, May 18th 2020 with 71% at home, and June 1st 2020 with 49% at home. They were asked during these times to complete measures of life satisfaction, loneliness, happiness, depression and stress, along with measures on affection deprivation. 

The researchers used the 3 time periods to see how the participants changed over time. The results showed that participants who experienced more affection deprivation also had higher levels of stress, loneliness, and depression over time. However, life satisfaction and happiness were not associated with affection deprivation. The effects could be seen at all three time periods and were more pronounced in women at both high and low levels of affection deprivation. 

The result of this study shows how important affectionate communication is for overall well being. It should be noted that the researchers could not compare levels of affection deprivation or their effects to pre-lockdown levels, as they were never assessed. 

Original article: https://www.psypost.org/2022/03/feeling-deprived-of-affection-was-associated-with-important-mental-health-outcomes-during-lockdown-study-finds-62655

Study :https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02654075211046587#_i24