176 Chapter 6 Changes in social relationships due to COVID-19 over time Quantitative results Next, to examine the self-perceived changes in quality of social relationships due to the COVID-19 restrictions of forensic outpatients over time (Time 1 vs. Time 2), Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were conducted. No significant differences in general social relationships, romantic relationships, and contact frequency between Time 1 and Time 2 were found. Only in family relationships a significant higher score was found on Time 2 (M = 4.366, SD = 0.915), compared to Time 1, indicating that family relationships had deteriorated over time (Z =-2.251, p = 0.024). Qualitative results In Table 2, an overview of themes and subthemes with corresponding example statements at Time 2 are presented. One participant was excluded from the analyses because the answer contained unclear information. In line with the quantitative results, themes that emerged after qualitative analyses at Time 2, were similar to themes at Time 1. Loneliness, social support, and changes in social relationships due to COVID-19 We then examined whether loneliness and social support in forensic outpatients, as well as age, gender, and daytime activities, were correlated with self-perceived changes in quality of social relationships due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Correlations between study variables are shown in Table 3. Emotional loneliness correlated significantly with change in general social relationships (r = 0.239, p = 0.023) and change in romantic relationships (r = 0.502, p = 0.040) due to COVID-19 restrictions. Higher levels of emotional loneliness were associated with greater negative changes in general social relationships and romantic relationships. Besides, change in contact frequency was significantly correlated with change in general social relationships (r = 0.279, p = 0.019) and family relationships (r = 0.239, p = 0.048). This indicates that decreased contact frequency was associated with greater deteriorations of general and family relationships of the participants. Four forward stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine whether emotional and social loneliness, positive and negative social support, while controlling for age, gender, and daytime activities, predicted change in social relationships due to the COVID-19 restrictions (i.e., changes in general social relationships, romantic relationships, family relationships, and contact frequency). Only emotional loneliness significantly predicted change in general social relationships (B = 0.038, t(68) = 2.026, p = 0.047) and change in romantic relationships (B = 0.106, t(15) = 2.446, p = 0.027). Emotional loneliness explained 5.7%of the variance in change in general social relationships (F(1,68) = 4.106, p = 0.047) and 28.5% of the variance in change in romantic relationships
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