Going out before the COVID-19 pandemic protected psychological health during the first lockdown: a model based on social capital theory

Abstract

This paper shows that greater engagement in offline leisure activities before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic – such as going to bars, restaurants and meeting friends – protected psychological health during the first lockdown in 2020. This result was obtained using structural equations on longitudinal data from a sample of 4,967 individuals (+14) collected in two waves between September 2019 and June 2020. Based on social capital theory, our model tests two routes for the mobilisation of social support prior to the stay-at-home policies: on the one hand, engagement in face-to-face leisure activities; on the other hand, engagement in activities online, such as chatting, browsing the Internet and being present on social media. According to the structural equation model, engagement in both types of leisure activity before the pandemic was associated with higher perceived levels of social support. However, only offline leisure activities have such a positive effect on social support that they protect (indirectly) mental health during the first lockdown, notably a period when social relationships were not nurtured face-to-face. These findings help to unravel further the ties between leisure and mental health in the historical contingencies of the pandemic.