Interpersonal Playfulness as a Protective Factor Against Loneliness and Boredom in Single People Living Alone during the COVID-19 Lockdown

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic added challenges to most people’s lives, while lockdown measures curtailed many coping mechanisms. Playfulness, a dispositional tendency toward engaging in amusing and entertaining behavior, was examined as a protective factor. We gathered open-ended responses and quantitative data over six weeks (once weekly) from a sample of single people living alone to evaluate the occurrence of interpersonal playful behaviors and the association between interpersonal playfulness with loneliness and boredom at both the trait and state levels. We found that people engaged in playful behaviors despite lockdown mandates, especially more playful people. Further, people who tend to be more dispositionally playful than others, and people feeling more playful than their usual, experienced less loneliness and boredom. Exploratory results suggest positive affect plays a mediating role in the associations between playfulness with loneliness and boredom. This study supports playfulness as an adaptive trait during challenging circumstances.