Impact Of Isolation Research Articles

Isolation and loneliness as pathways to heavy drinking early in the pandemic.

social isolation and forced quarantines during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with a steep and persistent rise in alcohol consumption among US adults. While the association between loneliness and drinking is well established, less is known about the impact of social isolation (a known correlate of loneliness) and the interplay between these two variables in relation to drinking. we recruited US adults using the MTurk platform for an online survey in early April 2020. The initial survey was followed up with a second wave, 30days later in mid to late May. Data from the current analyses focus on this second wave of data collection. we found significant direct effects on heavy drinking for both social isolation (c'= 0.495; P< .01) and loneliness (b= 0.071; P< .05). We also found a significant indirect path from social isolation to heavy drinking through social isolation's impact on elevating loneliness (a= 0.919; P< .001). The indirect effect of social isolation on the composite measure of heavy drinking was 0.0652 (0.919 × 0.071) and was significant at the 0.05 level after bootstrapping estimates of the variance were constructed. those most isolated early in the pandemic were at increased risk for heavy drinking, in part because their social isolation led to increased loneliness. Post-pandemic research is needed to explore whether the relationships that stemmed from social isolation during the pandemic led to a persistent pattern of behavioral risk that maintained high rates of heavy drinking.

The impact of professional isolation on teleworker job performance and turnover intentions: Does time spent teleworking, interacting face-to-face, or having access to communication-enhancing technology matter?

Although the teleworking literature continues to raise concerns regarding the adverse consequences of professional isolation, researchers have not examined its impact on work outcomes. Consequently, the authors first examine professional isolation's direct impact on job performance and turnover intentions among teleworkers and then investigate the contingent role of 3 salient work-mode-related factors. Survey data from a matched sample of 261 professional-level teleworkers and their managers revealed that professional isolation negatively impacts job performance and, contrary to expectations, reduces turnover intentions. Moreover, professional isolation's impact on these work outcomes is increased by the amount of time spent teleworking, whereas more face-to-face interactions and access to communication-enhancing technology tend to decrease its impact. On the basis of these findings, an agenda for future research on professional isolation is offered that takes into account telework's growing popularity as a work modality.