(PS5-A12) How Did People’s Experiences with Dating Change During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Dating and relationships have been shown to greatly impact one’s well-being and overall quality of life (Gomez-Aguinaga et al., 2021). The CDC’s social distancing and quarantining guidelines greatly inhibited people’s ability to socialize as well as date. However, there is a lack of research exploring how the pandemic changed people’s freedom and capacity to date. Therefore, between December 2021-March 2022, we recruited 157 participants (18-60 years old, 49.70% female, 73.20% White/European American) to complete an online questionnaire regarding their experiences and perspectives on dating during COVID-19. Most participants that were actively looking for romantic or sexual relationships indicated that dating got a lot harder (33.8%) or a little harder (30.6%), while 17.8% indicated no change from pre-pandemic, and 7% indicated that dating got a little easier. Stepwise regression analyses were then conducted to explore the aspects of the pandemic that may have led to changes in the perception of dating experiences. We explored whether perceptions of dating experiences were impacted by pressure from family, friends, local community, social media, and news media. Specifically, we identified that pressure from family (r = .070, b = .207, t=2.10, p=.037) and social media (r = -.214, b = .090, t=-.312, p=.009) significantly predicted changes in dating perception. Decreased familial pressure was associated with perceptions that dating became easier, while increased pressure from social media was associated with the perception that dating became harder. We also found that having more time and energy to date led to the perception that dating became easier during the pandemic (r = .380, b = .076, t=3.46, p< .001). Furthermore, we identified that one’s living situation during the pandemic significantly predicted changes in dating perception [F(1,136)=3.19, p = .005, partial eta² = .109] such that living with immunocompromised or high-risk individuals led to the perception that dating became harder (r = .186, p = .031), while living by oneself and not worrying about infecting household members led to the perception that dating became easier (r = -.202, p = .019). Interestingly, mental health variables (DASS: depression, anxiety, stress; attachment: anxious, avoidance; loneliness) did not significantly predict changes in perceptions of dating. Finally, people’s levels of safety precautions and worry about contracting COVID-19 did not significantly predict changes in perceptions of dating. These results demonstrate that unique external factors that were specific to the first year of COVID (having more free time for those who lived alone, and pressure from people and society to behave in a specific way) played a larger role in determining people’s perception of dating as getting harder or easier, as opposed to individual level factors. This work provides valuable insight into how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted dating and relationship patterns.