Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 22, 2025

Social Isolation Model: A Noninvasive Rodent Model of Stress and Anxiety
Published on: November 11, 2022
Gender, loneliness and happiness during COVID-19
Anthony Lepinteur1, Andrew E Clark1,2, Ada Ferrer-I-Carbonell3
1University of Luxembourg, 11 Porte des Sciences, Esch-sur-Alzette L-4366, Luxembourg.
Abstract:
We analyse a measure of loneliness from a representative sample of German individuals interviewed in both 2017 and at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Both men and women felt lonelier during the COVID-19 pandemic than they did in 2017. The pandemic more than doubled the gender loneliness gap: women were lonelier than men in 2017, and the 2017-2020 rise in loneliness was far larger for women. This rise is mirrored in life-satisfaction scores. Men's life satisfaction changed only little between 2017 and 2020; yet that of women fell dramatically, and sufficiently so to produce a female penalty in life satisfaction. We estimate that almost all of this female penalty is explained by the disproportionate rise in loneliness for women during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Related Concept Videos
Socioemotional Experience and Gender Development
Horney's Sociocultural Approach
Erikson's Theory on Socioemotional Development during Adulthood
Intimacy Versus Isolation in Early Adulthood
Individuals in early...
Bullying
Long-term Depression
Calcium Ion Concentration Mechanism
If over...
Stress and Mental Health
Individuals with depression often experience challenges in both their personal and professional...

