Impacts of social distancing on marital life during Covid-19 pandemic

Fabrício Rocha

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Kalil Maihub Manara

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Adriana Wagner

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Clarissa Marceli Trentini

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Contact: Prof. Adriana Wagner Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul Instituto de Psicologia Núcleo de Pesquisa Dinâmica das Relações Familiares Rua Ramiro Barcelos, 2600, sala 226 Porto Alegre-RS, Brazil Zip Code: 90035-003

Fabrício Rocha is graduate in Psychology from the Pontificia Universidade Católica Minas Gerais (2018), holds a Master’s degree in Psychology (2020) from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS, 2020), is currently a PhD student/candidate in the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia (UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), has a scholarship/support/funding from the Coordernação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), and is associated with the Research Center Dynamics of Family Relationships. E-mail:fabricio.rocha@ufrgs.br

Kalil Maihub Manara is graduate in Psychology from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (2018), holds a Master’s degree in Psychology from the same University (2020), is currently a PhD candidate/student in the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia (UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), has a scholarship/support/funding from the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), and is associated with the Center for Study on Psychological Assessment and Psychopathology (NEAPP). E-mail:kalil.manara@ufrgs.br

Adriana Wagner is an adjunct Professor at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia of the Instituto de Psicologia, PhD in Social Psychology (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Specialist in Family and Couple Therapy (Escuela de Formación en Terapia Familia - STIRPE, Spain), coordinator of the Research Center Dynamics of Family Relationships, and has research funding from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, level 1B). E-mail: adrianaxwagner@gmail.com

Clarissa Marceli Trentini is a full Professor in the Undergraduate and Post-Graduation courses in Psychology at UFRGS, PhD in Medical Sciences: Psychiatry (UFRGS), Master in Clinical Psychology (PUCRS), Specialist in Psychological Assessment (UFRGS), coordinator of the Center for Study on Psychological Assessment and Psychopathology (NEAPP), and has research funding (CNPq, level 1C) E-mail:clarissatrentini@terra.com.br

Variables	Definitions
Willingness to divorce	Report of having experienced the desire to divorce during the pandemic
Cohabitation time	How long the participant reports living together with the current partner
Increase in conflicts, arguments and fights	Report of increased marital conflicts, arguments and fights with the partner during the pandemic.
Decreased affection	Report of a decrease in expressions of affection between spouses during the pandemic
Decreased frequency of sexual intercourse	Report of a decrease in the frequency of sexual intercourse between spouses during the pandemic
Distancing time	Report of the time the participant adopted the social distancing measures recommended by the authorities during the pandemic
Decreased outdoor activities	How much the participant reports having stopped doing activities that he did outdoors before the pandemic.
Weekly outdoor activities	How many days a week did the participant leave home for any type of activity during the pandemic.

	n	%
Gender
Female	865	77.2 %
Male	256	22.8 %
Sexual Orientation
Other	8	0.7 %
Heterosexual	956	85.6 %
Homosexual	65	5.8 %
Bisexual	88	7.9 %
Marital status
Living together, without any civil registration	390	34.9 %
Living together, with civil registration of common-law marriage	105	9.4 %
Officially married in civil and religious instances	339	30.3 %
Married only in civil instance	177	15.8 %
Married only in religious instance	7	0.6 %
Dating	99	8.9 %
If the couple had children
Yes	507	45.2 %
No	615	54.8 %
Education
Incomplete Elementary School	8	0.7 %
Elementary School	5	0.4 %
Incomplete High School	7	0.6 %
High School	56	5.0 %
Incomplete Bachelor’s degree	270	24.1 %
Bachelor’s degree	192	17.1 %
Incomplete Post-graduation	96	8.6 %
Post-graduation	488	43.5 %

	Age (Years)	N Children	Monthly Personal Income (USD)	Cohabitation time (years)	Distancing time (days)
Mean	35.8	1.72	1,031.94	9.5	80.3
SD	11.4	0.868	1,236.05	9.8	41.2
Minimum	18.0	0.00	38.55	1 month	0.00
Maximum	80.0	11.0	17,346.72	55.5	158

						95% confidence interval
Predictor	Estimate	SE	Z	p	OR	Inferior	Superior
Model 1
Intercept	-1.67463	0.20929	-8.00	< 0.001	0.187	0.124	0.282
Cohabitation time^a	-0.00167	0.00071	-2.34	0.019	0.998	0.997	1.000^b
Distancing time	0.00272	0.00195	1.39	0.163	1.003	0.999	1.007
Increase in conflicts, arguments and fights	1.81165	0.18923	9.57	<0 .001	6.121	4.224	8.869
Decreased affection	1.13602	0.22976	4.94	< 0.001	3.114	1.985	4.886
Decreased frequency of sexual intercourse	0.58553	0.18443	3.17	0.001	1.796	1.251	2.578
Model 2
Intercept	-2.26043	0.3676	-6.15	<0.001	0.104	0.0507	0.214
Cohabitation time^a	-0.00161	0.0007	-2.29	0.022	0.998	0.998	1.000^b
Decreased outdoor activities	0.20459	0.0862	2.37	0.018	1.227	1.0363	1.453
Increase in conflicts, arguments and fights	1.86131	0.1875	9.93	< 0.001	6.432	4.4542	9.288
Decreased affection	1.08693	0.2279	4.77	<0.001	2.965	1.8970	4.635
Decreased frequency of sexual intercourse	0.56434	0.1834	3.08	0.002	1.758	1.2274	2.519
Model 3
Intercept	-1.2363	0.157	-7.86	<0.001	0.290	0.213	0.395
Cohabitation time^a	-0.0017	0.0007	-2.44	0.015	0.998	0.998	1.000^b
Weekly outdoor activities	-0.0789	0.038	-2.05	0.040	0.924	0.857	0.997
Increase in conflicts, arguments and fights	1.8431	0.187	9.84	< 0.001	6.316	4.376	9.116
Decreased affection	1.1400	0.228	4.99	< 0.001	3.127	1.998	4.893
Decreased frequency of sexual intercourse	0.5561	0.183	3.03	0.002	1.744	1.217	2.499

Model	Accuracy	Specificity	Sensitivity	Cut-off Point
1	0.708	0.710	0.703	0.2
2	0.694	0.688	0.708	0.21
3	0.722	0.733	0.698	0.21

Brasil