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The impact of changing personal relationship dynamics on quality of life throughout the UK COVID-19 lockdowns – a mixed methods study Cover

The impact of changing personal relationship dynamics on quality of life throughout the UK COVID-19 lockdowns – a mixed methods study

Open Access
|Nov 2025

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Boxplot of retrospective life satisfaction scores from n = 300 respondents at three time points: pre-lockdown, March 2020, and January 2021. Axes: x = lockdown period and y = satisfaction score (1–10), with standard error included as error bars.
Boxplot of retrospective life satisfaction scores from n = 300 respondents at three time points: pre-lockdown, March 2020, and January 2021. Axes: x = lockdown period and y = satisfaction score (1–10), with standard error included as error bars.

Summary of recurrent themes observed in subgroups where the relationship between overall relationship improvement throughout confinement and change in life satisfaction was investigated_

Relationship improvement with at least 1 other (any) individual within confinement
SubgroupSample sizeRecurrent themeCount
Relationship(s) improved and life satisfaction41Being unable to see elderly relatives0
Increased Death of a loved one2
Developing depression0
Family illness2
Feeling fortunate/lucky5
Friends/family moving out0
Moving home12
No major life changes occurred5
Not being able to see family1
Redundancy/changing work situation8
Relationship(s) improved and life satisfaction64Being unable to see elderly relatives3
Decreased Death of a loved one7
Developing depression1
Family illness7
Feeling fortunate/lucky5
Friends/family moving out4
Moving home6
No major life changes occurred2
Not being able to see family7
Redundancy/changing work situation7

Sociodemographic information descriptive statistics from respondents who submitted answers for both survey waves (n = 300)_

CharacteristicCountPercentage
Gender
Male6421
Female23679
Age category
18–296421
30–499933
50+13746
Ethnicity
White (UK)18060
White (Irish)72
White (Other)3010
White and Asian41
Multiple ethnic background2<1
Asian/Asian British (Indian)41
Asian/Asian British (Pakistani)1<1
Asian (other)1<1
Other (not listed)1<1
No answer7023
Educational attainment
No qualifications1<1
GCSE or O-Level52
A-levels207
Other school qualifications1<1
Undergraduate degree11438
Post graduate degree13445
Vocational qualifications165
Others72
No answer21
Household income
Less than £15,000258
£15,000 to £19,999155
£20,000 to £24,999165
£25,000 to £29,999258
£30,000 to £34,999279
£35,000 to £39,999248
£40,000 to £44,999196
£45,000 to £54,999248
£55,000 to £59,999144
£60,000 to £64,999186
£70,000 to £74,999134
£75,000 to £79,999145
More than £80,0004615
No answer207

Summary of recurrent themes observed in filtered subgroups where the relationship between relationship improvement with a partner/spouse throughout confinement and change in life satisfaction was investigated_

Relationship improvement with partner/spouse
SubgroupSample sizeRecurrent themeCount
Relationship improved and life satisfaction21Being unable to see elderly relatives0
Increased Death of a loved one1
Developing depression0
Family illness0
Feeling fortunate/lucky5
Friends/family moving out0
Moving home5
No major life changes occurred3
Not being able to see family0
Redundancy/changing work situation2
Relationship improved and life satisfaction30Being unable to see elderly relatives3
Decreased Death of a loved one3
Developing depression3
Family illness5
Feeling fortunate/lucky1
Friends/family moving out0
Moving home4
No major life changes occurred4
Not being able to see family3
Redundancy/changing work situation7

Breakdown of criteria for relationship improvement and deterioration tiers 1–5 used to quantify gross relationship improvement or deterioration between survey waves 1 and 2 for specifying our analytic samples in the qualitative analysis_

Relationship improvement tierCriteria
1Relationship(s) deteriorated in both waves with no improvement in either wave
2Relationship(s) deteriorated only in 1 wave with no improvement in the other
3Relationship(s) did not change
4Relationship(s) improved in 1 wave only with no deterioration in the other
5Relationship(s) improved in both waves with no deterioration in either wave
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/connections-2025-0005 | Journal eISSN: 2816-4245 | Journal ISSN: 0226-1766
Language: English
Page range: 66 - 76
Submitted on: Oct 28, 2024
Accepted on: Jun 12, 2025
Published on: Nov 12, 2025
Published by: International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA)
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

© 2025 Ryan J. Shepherd, Elisa Bellotti, Emilie Vrain, published by International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA)
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.