Effects of climate-related disasters on loneliness, social support, social functioning, and social contacts: longitudinal analyses of impact and recovery

Climate-related changes and disasters may disrupt relationships and ties. Drawing on 10 years of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) surveys, we examine the effects of climate-related disasters on loneliness, social support, social functioning, and social contacts with friends and family. By matching respondents who experienced a disaster with a control cohort of similar characteristics before the event, we find being exposed to a climate-related disaster is associated with an increase in loneliness and a decrease in social functioning the year of the event, and up to 2 years afterwards. We also find lower levels of reported social support, with the effect sustained up to 6 years after the event. We further explore whether there may be heterogeneity in the impact, utilising group-based trajectory modelling. We identified three groups that followed distinct trajectories of sociality: a low (19.6%), medium (44.7%), and high social support and connectedness group (35.7%). The low support and connectedness group experienced the most substantial decrease in social support and an increase in loneliness in the year of the event, though followed by gradual recovery over time. Our findings provide further evidence of the heterogeneity in the social impacts of climate change.