Year 2 – Report 2021

Social networks, friendships and isolation

We explored social relationships with partners, friends and family members, and positive associations with others. The social networks of those in the READY cohort were unusually small. Over half were unable to identify more than 5 people in their combined networks of family, friends and close relationships with others.

Network size was not influenced by the presence/absence of additional needs, degree of deafness or ethnicity but men tended to have larger networks than women. Also, those in higher socio-economic groups tended to have larger networks. We found an association between the number of close friendships a participant has, and the number of close relationships they have with family members, indicating that close family relationships may be important for the development of close friendships.

Over 40% of participants registered in the two most lonely categories in terms of their life overall and how frequently they felt lonely. This is very similar to general population statistics for this age group post-pandemic, although this had not been the case prior to lockdown. Over 15% of READY participants had nobody to turn to if they felt depressed, unhappy or lonely and this group all registered in the low well-being category on the SWEMWBS well-being scale.

Furthermore, we have identified a subgroup in our sample of 10 extremely isolated individuals who all have low well-being, little or no means of personal/emotional support, who have very few contacts with other people that are meaningful to them (including with family) whether in person or virtually, and are extremely dissatisfied with their social support. (A further 17 we have classified as ‘somewhat isolated’ based on the same grouping of factors).

Although the proportion of lonely participants in the READY study is a cause for concern, young people in our qualitative interviews talked extensively about their experiences of loneliness in the pandemic being in many ways more of the same rather than a break with previous experience.

This comparison also points to something that has been remarked on previously, that deaf people can and do develop a capacity and tolerance for loneliness in ways that perhaps hearing people do not in the usual course of events because of the social and communicative consequences of being deaf.

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