Measuring the experience of social connection within specific social interactions: The Connection During Conversations Scale (CDCS).

Decades of research have demonstrated that social connection is fundamental to health and well-being. The benefits of connection are observed with both close and distant others, within both new and established relationships, and even with exchanges that unfold over a relatively short timeframe. Because social connection is fundamental to well-being, many existing measures in the literature aim to assess either a global sense of connection or partner-specific (relationship-specific) connection. What is missing are measures of connection felt in specific social interactions or conversations. In three studies (Study 1: N = 351; Study 2: Time 1 N = 397, Time 2 N = 336, Time 3 N = 299; Study 3: N = 235), we developed the Connection During Conversations Scale (CDCS), a 14-item measure of conversation-specific social connection that assesses connection experienced during a social interaction (or conversation). Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that a four-factor model fit our samples well, which resulted in four subscales: Shared Reality, Partner Responsiveness, Participant Interest, and Affective Experience. The overall CDCS measure, along with its four subscales, was significantly correlated with established measures of loneliness, partner responsiveness, relatedness, positivity resonance, and shared reality. Because of the importance of frequent interactions-whether with family, friends, coworkers, or strangers-our new scale will allow researchers to better understand how, when, and where such conversations may contribute to social connection and well-being. (225 words).

Video conferencing during emergency distance learning impacted student emotions during COVID-19.

Research during the pandemic has demonstrated that the rapid shift to emergency distance learning has impacted students' emotions. What explains this link remains a sparsely explored question. Because many students report negative experiences while video conferencing during emergency distance learning, one avenue that has yet to be explored is whether students' attitudes towards video conferencing may explain the link between video conferencing and students' emotions. As such, to explore this question, a total of 558 college students and 219 parents or guardians of K-12 students completed a survey about their video conferencing attitudes while emergency distance learning and their positive and negative emotions while video conferencing during emergency distance learning. Across both samples, even after controlling for student learning and teacher evaluations, when students held the attitude that video conferencing during emergency distance learning felt like a forced interaction, students reported greater negative emotions. Because instructors can use the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to improve distance learning in the future, video conferencing attitudes that are most strongly related to negative emotions should continue to be explored.

Changes in social connection during COVID-19 social distancing: It's not (household) size that matters, it's who you're with.

To slow the transmission of COVID-19, countries around the world have implemented social distancing and stay-at-home policies-potentially leading people to rely more on household members for their sense of closeness and belonging. To understand the conditions under which people felt the most connected, we examined whether changes in overall feelings of social connection varied by household size and composition. In two pre-registered studies, undergraduates in Canada (NStudy 1 = 548) and adults primarily from the U.S. and U.K. (NStudy 2 = 336) reported their perceived social connection once before and once during the pandemic. In both studies, living with a partner robustly and uniquely buffered shifts in social connection during the first phases of the pandemic (ßStudy 1 = .22, ßStudy 2 = .16). In contrast, neither household size nor other aspects of household composition predicted changes in connection. We discuss implications for future social distancing policies that aim to balance physical health with psychological health.