Gender, loneliness and happiness during COVID-19

Anthony Lepinteur, Andrew Clark, Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Alan Piper, Carsten Schröder and Conchita D'Ambrosio

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), 2022, vol. 101, issue C

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.

Keywords: Loneliness; Life satisfaction; Gender; COVID-19; SOEP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I14 I18 I30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Gender, Loneliness and Happiness during COVID-19 (2022)
Working Paper: Gender, Loneliness and Happiness during COVID-19 (2022)
Working Paper: Gender, loneliness and happiness during COVID-19 (2022)
Working Paper: Gender, loneliness and happiness during COVID-19 (2022)
Working Paper: Gender, Loneliness and Happiness during COVID-19 (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceco:v:101:y:2022:i:c:s2214804322001239

DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2022.101952

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