Fall From Grace: Increased Loneliness and Depressiveness Among Extraverted Youth During the German COVID-19 Lockdown

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially affected young people’s social and emotional life. Based on longitudinal data provided by 843 adolescents (57.3% female) of the German Family Panel (pairfam), we investigated effects of extraversion on changes in loneliness and depressiveness between 2018 and 2019 and the first German COVID-19 lockdown in the first half of 2020. Findings of latent change modeling show that highly extraverted adolescents experienced a larger rise in depressiveness, and a third of this total effect was mediated through increases in loneliness. These results contradict previous work evidencing lower depressiveness among extraverted youth and challenge the notion of extraversion as a mere protective factor. Under conditions of restricted access to others, this personality trait may become a burden.