COVID-19: Technology, Social Connections, Loneliness, and Leisure Activities: An International Study Protocol

Hannah R Marston; Loredana Ivan; Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol; Andrea Rosales Climent; Madelin Gómez-León; Daniel Blanche-T; Sarah Earle; Pei-Chun Ko; Sophie Colas; Burcu Bilir; Halime Öztürk Çalikoglu; Hasan Arslan; Rubal Kanozia; Ulla Kriebernegg; Franziska Großschädl; Felix Reer; Thorsten Quandt; Sandra C Buttigieg; Paula Alexandra Silva; Vera Gallistl; Rebekka Rohner

doi:10.3389/fsoc.2020.574811

COVID-19: Technology, Social Connections, Loneliness, and Leisure Activities: An International Study Protocol

Front Sociol. 2020 Nov 19:5:574811. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2020.574811. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Hannah R Marston¹, Loredana Ivan², Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol³, Andrea Rosales Climent³, Madelin Gómez-León³, Daniel Blanche-T³, Sarah Earle¹, Pei-Chun Ko⁴, Sophie Colas^{5

6}, Burcu Bilir⁷, Halime Öztürk Çalikoglu⁷, Hasan Arslan⁷, Rubal Kanozia⁸, Ulla Kriebernegg⁹, Franziska Großschädl¹⁰, Felix Reer¹¹, Thorsten Quandt¹¹, Sandra C Buttigieg¹², Paula Alexandra Silva¹³, Vera Gallistl¹⁴, Rebekka Rohner¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ Health and Wellbeing Strategic Research Area, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom.
² Communication Department, The National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), Bucharest, Romania.
³ Communication Networks & Social Change (CNSC) Research Group, Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) Research Institute, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Catalonia, Spain.
⁴ Centre for University Core, Singapore University of Social Science, Singapore, Singapore.
⁵ Le Centre de Recherches Individus, Épreuves, Sociétés (CeRIES), University of Lille, Lille, France.
⁶ Institute for Anthropological Research in Africa (IARA), KU Leuven, Belgium.
⁷ Graduate School of Educational Sciences, Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, Turkey.
⁸ Department of Mass Communication and Media Studies, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, India.
⁹ Age and Care Research Group Graz, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
¹⁰ Institute of Nursing Science and Age and Care Research Group, Medical University Graz, Graz, Austria.
¹¹ Department of Communication, University of Munster, Munster, Germany.
¹² Department of Health Sciences Management, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta, Msida, Malta.
¹³ Department of Informatics Engineering (DEI), Centre for Informatics and Systems (CISUC), Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
¹⁴ Ageing, Generations, Life-Course Research Group, Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.

Abstract

Drawn from the stress process model, the pandemic has imposed substantial stress to individual economic and mental well-being and has brought unprecedented disruptions to social life. In light of social distancing measures, and in particular physical distancing because of lockdown policies, the use of digital technologies has been regarded as the alternative to maintain economic and social activities. This paper aims to describe the design and implementation of an online survey created as an urgent, international response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The online survey described here responds to the need of understanding the effects of the pandemic on social interactions/relations and to provide findings on the extent to which digital technology is being utilized by citizens across different communities and countries around the world. It also aims to analyze the association of use of digital technologies with psychological well-being and levels of loneliness. The data will be based on the ongoing survey (comprised of several existing and validated instruments on digital use, psychological well-being and loneliness), open for 3 months after roll out (ends September) across 11 countries (Austria, France, Germany, India, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, and UK). Participants include residents aged 18 years and older in the countries and snowball sampling is employed via social media platforms. We anticipate that the findings of the survey will provide useful and much needed information on the prevalence of use and intensities of digital technologies among different age groups, gender, socioeconomic groups in a comparative perspective. Moreover, we expect that the future analysis of the data collected will show that different types of digital technologies and intensities of use are associated with psychological well-being and loneliness. To conclude, these findings from the study are expected to bring in our understanding the role of digital technologies in affecting individual social and emotional connections during a crisis.

Keywords: gerontechnology; gerontology; international rapid response; pandemic (COVID-19); quantitative data; social media; social science research.

Copyright © 2020 Marston, Ivan, Fernández-Ardèvol, Rosales Climent, Gómez-León, Blanche-T, Earle, Ko, Colas, Bilir, Öztürk Çalikoglu, Arslan, Kanozia, Kriebernegg, Großschädl, Reer, Quandt, Buttigieg, Silva, Gallistl and Rohner.