ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2022
The longitudinal effect of COVID-19 infections and lockdown on mental health and the protective effect of neighbourhood social relations.
Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- How does social capital shape trajectories of adolescent self-rated health in the United Kingdom?Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence · 2026Article
- Adolescent Social Capital as a Source of Resilience against Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties in Times of Crisis: Longitudinal Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2026Article
- The mechanism of square dancing on subjective well-being among middle-aged and older women in China: mediating role of social connectedness and moderating role of exercise self-efficacy.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Social Cohesion and COVID-19: Integrative Review.Interactive journal of medical research · 2024Review
- Personality characteristics, music-listening, and well-being: a systematic and scoping review.Research in psychotherapy (Milano) · 2024Article
- Neighborhood Governance and Happiness during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Analysis of Wuhan's Lockdown.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The effect of resource loss on depression and peritraumatic distress during the early period of the COVID-19: considering the pandemic-situational and social context.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Protecting mental health in quarantine: Exploring lived experiences of healthcare in mandatory COVID-19 quarantine, New South Wales, Australia.SSM - population health · 2023Article
- Editorial: 'Divided or united': strengthening social cohesion for well-being and prosperity.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Stressors related to the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and the Ukraine crisis, and their impact on stress symptoms in Germany: analysis of cross-sectional survey data.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Men smoke less under the COVID-19 closure policies: The role of altruism.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2022Article
- "We see each other from a distance": Neighbourhood social relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic matter for older adults' social connectedness.Health & place · 2022Article
- A community-led intervention to build neighbourhood identification predicts better wellbeing following prolonged COVID-19 lockdowns.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Association between disability, social support and depressive symptoms in Chinese older adults: A national study.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- The COVID-19 Pandemic, Social Ties, and Psychosocial Well-Being of Middle-Aged Women in Rural Africa.Socius : sociological research for a dynamic worldArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
rationaleThe effect of COVID-19 lockdowns on mental health is a major concern worldwide. Measuring the impacts, however, is difficult because of a lack of data that tracks and compares outcomes and potential protective social factors before and during lockdowns.
objectiveWe aim to quantify the impact of a second lockdown in 2020 in the Australian city of Melbourne on levels of depression, anxiety, and loneliness, and analyse whether social relations in the neighbourhood may buffer against the worst effects of lockdown.
methodsWe draw on quasi-experimental data from a nationally-representative longitudinal survey conducted in Australia. We use a difference-in-difference approach with a number of control variables to estimate changes in mental health among respondents in Melbourne following the imposition of the lockdown. A measure of perceived neighbourhood social relations is included as an explanatory variable to analyse potential protective effects.
resultsLockdown is estimated to have increased depressive symptoms by approximately 23% and feelings of loneliness by 4%. No effect on anxiety was detected. Levels of neighbourhood social relations were strongly negatively associated with mental health symptoms. A significant interaction between lockdown and neighbourhood social relations suggests that lockdown increased depressive symptoms by 21% for people with average perceived neighbourhood relations, compared with a 9.7% increase for people whose perceived relations is one standard deviation greater than average.
conclusionThe results add to evidence of the harsh impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns on mental health. Importantly, neighbourhood social relations and social cohesion more broadly may be an important source of social support in response to lockdowns. These findings provide important insights for researchers and policy-makers in how to understand and respond to the mental health impacts of COVID-19.
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