Time-varying associations between loneliness and physical activity: Evidence from repeated daily life assessments in an adult lifespan sample.

Physical activity is a behavior that promotes physical and mental health; yet physical activity has decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic. To promote health during times of challenge, it is important to identify potential barriers to this key health behavior, such as loneliness. This brief report extends previous research on physical activity and loneliness that mainly focused on between-person differences to examine their time-varying associations at the within-person level using repeated daily life assessments. From April 2020 to August 2020, data were collected from a sample of 139 community-dwelling Canadian adults (M age = 40.65 years, SD = 18.37; range = 18-83 years). Each evening for 10 consecutive days, participants reported their loneliness, number of steps, and minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Results revealed that, in line with our hypotheses, on days when participants reported more loneliness they also engaged in less moderate-to-vigorous physical activity than on less lonely days (estimate = -0.24, p = 0.007); there was a significant negative association between loneliness and daily number of steps (estimate = -18.42, p = 0.041). In contrast, at the between-person level, overall loneliness was not associated with overall physical activity engagement after accounting for within-person differences and control variables (age, sex, day in study). From an intervention perspective, our findings suggest that it is promising to tackle loneliness on a day-to-day basis to increase physical activity one day at a time. This may be especially relevant during times mandating social-distancing, but also at other times when individuals experience greater feelings of loneliness.

Having time to oneself in times of extended togetherness: Solitude experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study investigated how time to oneself (solitude) is experienced under conditions of extended togetherness with household members during the pandemic. Both structural (living arrangements) and qualitative characteristics (relationship quality and conflict) were examined for their association with solitude desire and daily solitude-affect links. We expected that people living with others and those with more high-quality as well as those with more conflictual relationships would report better affect quality when experiencing solitude. A Canadian adult lifespan sample (N = 141; Mage = 38.43 years, SDage = 17.51; 81% female; 73% White; data collected from April to August 2020) provided information on household size and relationship characteristics and completed repeated daily life assessments of solitude desire, solitude, and affect. Findings show that living arrangements were not associated with an increased desire for solitude or better affect quality from solitude. Individuals reporting higher relationship quality and individuals reporting more conflict showed more favorable affect quality on days when they had time in solitude than individuals reporting lower quality relationships and lower conflict. Findings add to the growing solitude literature by delineating who seeks and benefits from solitude, and under what conditions.

The Role of Relationship Quality for Solitude Experiences during the Pandemic

As time spent at home has significantly increased during the pandemic, reports of household conflict has also risen among people living with others (Usher et al., 2020). One solution to alleviate the potential stress of increased time with others could be carving out time to oneself. The present study investigated how living conditions (e.g., with others vs. alone) are associated with everyday desire for solitude and whether daily solitude experience comes with improved daily emotional well-being in people living with others. Furthermore, it also explored whether relationship quality is associated with solitude experience in a similar manner as living conditions. To do so, we used repeated daily life assessments from a lifespan sample (N = 215;M age = 38.3 years, SD age = 17.5;78 % female) collected during the early pandemic (April to August 2020). Findings indicate that neither living conditions nor relationship quality were directly associated with daily desire for solitude, but higher relationship well-being was related to low preference for solitude when measured as an individual trait. In addition, relationship quality significantly moderated everyday solitude–affect links: higher relationship quality was related to reduced negative affect during solitude, and conflict was related to increased positive and decreased negative affect on solitude as compared to non-solitude days. The results imply that it is the subjective experience of relationships rather than objective living conditions that shape daily affective quality during solitude.