Online Social Experiences and Loneliness for Peruvian Adolescents During Social Isolation in Response to COVID-19

• In Event: Longitudinal Peer and Family Relationships Impact on Adolescent Mood During COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction
Lockdown challenges connectedness, putting adolescents at risk for social isolation and its consequences (Loades et al., 2020). During quarantine, social media helps to maintain relationships across distance (Ellis, Dumas, & Forbes, 2020). Social media can enhance social support and belonging in adolescents, ameliorating the toll of physical isolation (Lin, Liu, Niu, & Longobardi, 2020; Orben, Tomova & Blakemore, 2020; Allen, Ryan, Gray, McInerney, & Waters, 2014).

Hypotheses and population
In our longitudinal study of 735 Peruvian adolescents (11-17 years) from low-to-middle-income urban settings, we investigated whether online experiences relate to loneliness during lockdown. We hypothesized that positive online experiences would be related to reduced feelings of loneliness and moderate the change in loneliness.

Methods
Data were collected among 6th to 11th-grade students in 63 schools in Perú during quarantine from April 20th to May 29th. Using mixed-effects models, we investigated whether ratings of positive and negative online experiences (Kent de Grey et al., 2019) were associated with loneliness (Russell, Peplau, & Cutron, 1980) at baseline, and whether this changed from week 6 to week 11. We explored grade and gender interactions (preregistration: https://osf.io/md36g/).

Results
Best fitting models revealed a main effect of negative online experiences (β = 0.19; P < 0.001) and positive online experiences (β = -0.15; P < 0.001) on loneliness at week 6 and week 11, controlling for family social support (MSPSS family subscale; Zimet, 2016), gender, and grade. Adolescents with higher levels of positive online experiences showed lower levels of loneliness (with the reverse pattern for negative online experiences). This association held constant between weeks 6 and 11. There was no significant interaction between either positive or negative online experiences and week, since loneliness did not differ across weeks (β = 0.03; P = 0.56, see Figure 1A and 1B).
At baseline, males had lower loneliness than females (β = -0.26; P < 0.001), with no grade-related differences. Both genders had comparable positive online experiences (β = -0.09; P =0.25). Compared to 6th-graders, 8th- (β = 0.54; P = 0.0001), 9th- (β = 0.48; P = 0.001), and 11th-graders (β = 0.69; P < 0.0001) experienced more positive online interactions. Compared to 7th-graders, 8th- (β = 0.34; P = 0.03) and 11th-graders (β = 0.50; P = 0.007) indicated more positive experiences online. Males experienced fewer negative online experiences than females (β = -0.18; P = 0.02). Eleventh graders had more negative online experiences than 6th-graders (β = 0.49; P = 0.02) and 7th-graders (β = 0.45; P = 0.03).
In summary, loneliness remained constant, was higher for females and similar across grades. Both positive and negative online experiences were more frequent for older students. Females experienced more negative online experiences than males. Loneliness was negatively associated with positive online experiences and positively associated with negative online experiences, when controlling for family social support. Our results highlight the association between online experiences and wellbeing, suggesting that positive online experiences can be an important vehicle for peer relationships in the face of lockdown.

Authors

• Lucía Magis-Weinberg, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Christopher Louis Gys, University of California - Berkeley
  Non-Presenting Author

• Estelle L. Berger, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah E. Domoff, Central Michigan University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ron E Dahl, University of California, Berkeley
  Non-Presenting Author