Couples' We-Ness and Separateness During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown: A Longitudinal Perspective

Sarah Galdiolo; Anthony Mauroy; Lesley Liliane Verhofstadt

doi:10.1177/0261927X221138116

Couples' We-Ness and Separateness During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown: A Longitudinal Perspective

J Lang Soc Psychol. 2023 Jun;42(3):342-354. doi: 10.1177/0261927X221138116. Epub 2022 Dec 20.

Authors

Sarah Galdiolo¹, Anthony Mauroy¹, Lesley Liliane Verhofstadt²

Affiliations

¹ DYSTRESS Lab, Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Mons, Mons, Belgium.
² Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent. Belgium.

Abstract

This 5-wave longitudinal study aimed to monitor the feeling of we-ness and separateness over one year of the COVID-19 pandemic by examining partners' natural pronoun usage when reporting couple interactions. Compared to the start of the pandemic, a general decline of we-ness was found after one year. Moreover, the changes in couple we-ness were non-linear, resulting in an increase at the end of the strict lockdown, followed by a decrease. No change in couple separateness was found.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; couple; lockdown; pronoun usage; separateness; we-ness.