25 June 2020

Strengthening close relationships during the lockdown: a quali-quantitative study

The corona epidemic and the subsequent closure of large sections of society have turned many people's everyday lives upside down. But not everyone has been impacted equally hard.

A new study shows that many young people were surprisingly quick to adapt to a partial state of emergency, where all normal social relationships were suddenly challenged by demands for social distancing and recommendations to stay at home as much as possible.

Figure: Young people's average experience of social deprivation over time

The figure shows the average degree of agreement towards the statement: “Today I have missed being together with someone.” Orange days mark the Easter holidays. The green days show weekends.

The study of young people's everyday lives is the third in a series of published sub-studies focusing on the corona crisis during the main project ‘The Dynamics of Political Discourse and Attention during the COVID-19 outbreak’. The project is supported by the Faculty of Social Sciences as one of seven projects that has received funding to conduct research on the societal impacts of the corona-crisis.

The first two blog posts on the study's homepage mapped and analysed, which corona-related themes and moods that have characterised the public debate in Denmark with a particular focus on the social media Twitter.

This study and its associated blog post (in Danish) have a significantly different focus as it builds on interviews and daily logbook posts from a group of young residents at the same college. A total of 59 persons participated in the study, of which 33 persons were included in the analysed sample.

Behind the studies is a group of researchers affiliated with the interdisciplinary Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science (SODAS). The following has contributed to the current update:

  • Emilie Munch Gregersen, Academic Project Assistant, SODAS
  • Malene Hornstrup Jespersen, Master Student at IT & Cognition, Student Assistant at SODAS
  • Sofie Læbo Astrupgaard, Master Student at the Department of Anthropology, Student Assistant at SODAS
  • Tobias Priesholm Gårdhus, Academic Project Assistant, SODAS
  • Eva Iris Otto, PhD Student at the Department of Anthropology and SODAS
  • Morten Axel Pedersen, professor at the Department of Anthropology and SODAS
  • Kristoffer Albris, Assistant Professor at the Department of Anthropology and SODAS