Insee Focus · April 2022 · n° 265

During lockdown periods, one third of persons aged 18 or over exchanged with their family every day

During the specific periods of lockdown linked to the Covid-19 epidemic, one in ten adults living in metropolitan France declared having experienced a permanent or recurrent feeling of abandonment. Women are twice as likely as men to report this feeling.

Three out of ten persons said they needed help between March 2020 and October 2021. In the vast majority of cases, expected help was moral support (79%) and, to a lesser extent, material or financial assistance (26% and 18%, respectively). Nearly three quarters of those who needed help asked for it and, among those, almost all actually received it.

The periods of lockdown also led to adapting the modes of communication with the entourage. Thus, one third of persons aged 18 or over exchanged on a daily basis with their family during the periods of lockdown, compared to just over one quarter before the health crisis and after July 2021. Links with family were thus maintained. In contrast, exchanges with friends and neighbours were less frequent in autumn 2021 than before March 2020.