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Abstract
This is the first study to disentangle associations of within- and between-person
fluctuations in loneliness and their effect on evening mood during a nationwide lockdown
due to COVID-19. To contribute to the development of personality-tailored risk profiles,
we additionally explored the moderating role of trait neuroticism and extraversion
on the association of within- and between-person loneliness and mood. We employed
an ambulatory assessment design during 21 days of nationwide lockdown in Germany (13/04/2020-03/05/2020)
with two interval-based assessments. The final sample comprised 322 participants (74.5%
women) aged between 15 and 82 years (M = 30.7, SD = 14.9) providing 6,084 evening
assessments. Linear mixed models were used to evaluate the effects of within- and
between-person fluctuations in loneliness on evening mood while controlling for unspecific
effects of time, sex, and age. Moderation analysis was used to investigate the influence
of neuroticism and extraversion on the relation between loneliness and mood, respectively.
Results indicate that especially higher between-person loneliness (i.e. participants
felt lonelier compared to the average participant) but also higher within-person loneliness
(i.e. participants felt lonelier compared to their individual mean) were associated
with a more unpleasant mood. Neuroticism augmented the effect of within-person loneliness,
while extraversion seemed to buffer the effect of between-person loneliness on mood.
Our findings underline the importance of carefully monitoring loneliness during COVID-19.
The findings contribute towards the development of personality-tailored risk profiles
(e.g. among newly arising risk groups for loneliness due to COVID-19). We discuss
how the differential consideration of within- and between-psychological processes
might help to elucidate currently mixed findings on psychological coping during the
COVID-19 pandemic.