In this thesis paper, the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed. Chapter 1 discusses what inspired me to write this thesis and follows with a discussion of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapter 2 takes a step back and discusses biological effects of social isolation in general. Chapter 3 discusses the psychological effects of social isolation. Finally, this thesis concludes with a discussion of what can be done to help those experiencing social isolation during the pandemic.

Early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic introduced a change in communication norms in regard to well-being. People traversed through different forms of communication to adapt to policies and regulations that limited in-person interactions to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Social interactions have been found to be an innate human need, important to one’s health and well-being. The study looked at the relationship between socializing and well-being during the state of the COVID-19 pandemic. Socializing variables consisted of remote and in-person socializing which in-person socializing was divided into two distinct categories. In-person socializing was divided into in-person safe socializing, indicating socializing that was safe from the risk of contracting the virus, and in-person unsafe socializing which indicates that socializing was at risk of contracting the virus. Additionally, the current study also investigated how age moderates this relationship between socializing and well-being. SEM analyses reported that in-person unsafe socializing has a significant positive association with well-being outcomes: anxiety and depression which indicate high levels of anxiety and depression with increased in-person unsafe socializing. The study also found remote socializing to have a significant positive association with the well-being outcome: positive affect, indicating increased levels of positive affect with increased remote socializing. Regression analyses looked at moderation by age, finding no significant interactions of age between socializing and well-being. Findings suggest the beneficial role of remote socializing and although remote socializing cannot replace in-person interactions, it serves as a supplemental resource during unpredictable events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this Honors Thesis was to first, understand the implications of social isolation and loneliness on an individuals’ physical and mental health and second, uncover successful strategies that individuals used to overcome social isolation and loneliness. This thesis used two primary data sets to draw conclusions about individuals’ subjective feelings of loneliness and isolation and to further understand what strategies were used to overcome these feelings. The results from this thesis demonstrated that individuals who successfully avoided feelings of social isolation and loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic took up new activities, used strategies to facilitate communication, participated in community engagement, completed acts of service, practiced mindfulness and reflection, and made new connections.

For our thesis, we analyzed a set of data from the on-going longitudinal study, “Aging In the Time of COVID-19” (Guest et al., ongoing) from the Center for Innovation in Healthy and Resilient Aging at Arizona State University. This study researched how COVID-19 and the resulting physical/social distancing impacted aging individuals' health, wellbeing, and quality-of-life. The survey collected data regarding over 1400 participants’ social connections, health, and experiences during COVID-19. This study gathered information about participants’ comorbid conditions, age, sex, location, etc. We presented this work in the form of a website including the traditional elements of an Honors Thesis as well as a visual essay with the data analysis portion coded with the JavaScript library D3 and a list of resources for our target audience, older adults who are experiencing social isolation and/or loneliness.