MSU Social Distancing Study - 5/20/20

Dr. Michael Nadorff discusses a new study to be conducted by Mississippi State University's Psychology Department that will focus on the effect of social distancing on mental health.

How you can take part.

// eric crosswhite: dr. nardorff, by this time, we all know what social distancing is and we all know why it's important, but maybe something that we're not focusing on is the impact psychologically that it may be having on us.

So what are your thoughts there?

Dr. michael nadorff: i agree, and it's challenging because in psychology there's a lot that we know about with social distancing.

Certainly, we know about loneliness, there's a ton of research on that.

But these are different times and i think in psychology, what we're realizing is that everything has changed.

While there's a lot we can extrapolate from the prior research, we also recognize that here you have this combination of job losses or job stress, worries about health, and this need to be destined at the same time where it's been forced upon us.

We haven't seen that in over a hundred years.

Dr. michael nadorff: so it's really important for us as a field in psychology to kind of take a step back and figure out what does that mean?

What are people actually struggling with and how can we help them with that?

Eric crosswhite: that's actually a subject that you guys are doing a study on at the psychology department at msu.

What does that involve?

How does that work?

Dr. michael nadorff: we are.

So we're doing a survey right now where we're getting a better sense of how people are dealing with this distance and what ways are they coping with it.

Also by virtue of that, what are their struggles so we can better understand as a field how can we go and help them, how can we help overcome some of the negative effects of this.

Eric crosswhite: right.

Now are you looking for participants currently?

Have you already been talking with people?

Where are you at in this process?

Dr. michael nadorff: we are.

So we're currently recruiting and the website will be here.

But there's a website you can go to very easily in order to participate, if you'd like, and help us better understand the effect that distance has had on you, the ways you've coped with it and also just some of the stressors that it's brought into your life.

Eric crosswhite: what are some of the questions that you're going to be asking with that study?

Dr. michael nadorff: so we're really interested in a myriad of different ways that people are interacting with others.

We have several questions on pets.

We're really interested about how that relationship has changed now that people are home more and they're with their pets more.

So does that make you closer to your pet?

Further from your pet?

Are they helper or stressor?

So just things like that to help us understand what does your day-to- day life look like now and what are your current stressors?

What differentiates those people that are doing really well with this from those that are struggling more so we can make recommendations for those that are struggling.

Eric crosswhite: as a mental health professional, has this surprised you how people have reacted to social distancing?

Or was this something that you would've expected?

Dr. michael nadorff: a lot of it's as i would've expected it.

It's the combination of a lot of people take it very seriously, but also struggling with the impact of being isolated, with other people that, unfortunately, haven't been following the guidelines as much.

So it's been the normal range that you'd expect with that.

Dr. michael nadorff: but i do think what has been interesting is just seeing over time how that has changed, so where people were at the very start of this epidemic has changed as we've gone along.

That's another thing that we're trying to look at is, as we get more information and as we progress through this, how do people change?

How do the stressors change and how do people's willingness to actually be distant change?

Because all that has huge implications for the healthcare system.

Eric crosswhite: do you think evaluating people's reactions to social distancing right now may help us as a society in the future looking forward, if something like this were to happen again?

Dr. michael nadorff: absolutely.

Also, frankly, we don't know how long this is going to go.

I'm hoping it'll be short, but it could be years potentially.

So the more information we can get now is going to help us in the case it is a longer runway than we'd really like it to be.

But, if nothing else, it's going to better prepare us going forward and also help us understand how we can best band together, even if it's distantly together, in order to help overcome these challengchallenges.

Eric crosswhite: right.

Well, dr. nadorff, thanks so much for talking with us again this afternoon.

We appreciate it.

Dr.