Decline in informal helping during the first COVID-19 lockdown: a longitudinal analysis of Dutch data

Abstract

ABSTRACT Like many European countries, the Netherlands locked down in March 2020 to combat the spread of COVID-19. Although government officials called for solidarity, the lockdown measures made it more difficult to help fellow citizens. In this study, we examine whether informal helping declined during the first lockdown in the Netherlands and to what extent changes depended on people’s resources (time/health), motivation (solidarity/COVID concerns) and opportunities (social contact). In general, we expected an overall decline of informal helping, and this decline was expected to be smaller for people with more resources, motivation, and opportunities. We used data from the SOCON COVID-19 Panel survey that were collected through internet and telephone interviews before (February 2019/2020) and shortly after the first lockdown in the Netherlands (July 2020) (N = 522). We examine the impact of resources, motivation and opportunities for informal help provided to relatives, friends and neighbors separately. Indeed, results showed that people overall helped less during the lockdown than before. The decline in helping relatives was smaller among those who lost work, were worried about relatives, experienced solidarity with others or had more contact with relatives during the lockdown. People who contacted more with neighbors during the lockdown period provided more informal help to them during the lockdown than before.