Crowding and aggression during the covid-19 lockdown in the united kingdom : the relationship between residential density, subjective crowding, privacy, and aggression

Introduction: Social density in UK homes (square meters available per person) is seen to be the highest in Europe, having potentially detrimental impacts on people especially during national lockdowns such as during COVID-19 pandemic. Previous research has limitedly explored the connection between residents’ subjective sense of crowding and psychological outcomes like aggression, in comparison to the effect of social density. The suggested role of privacy in perceiving density as crowding further necessitates investigation. Objective: This study examined the sequential relationship of residential density on subjective crowding on self-reported aggression. Perceived privacy was hypothesized to mediate the relationship between residential density and subjective crowding. Materials and Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted with individuals (n=300) using the crowd-sourcing platform Prolific during the COVID-19 lockdown in June 2020 in the United Kingdom. Results: Bootstrapped path analysis examined the hypothesized relationships in three hierarchical models, controlling for age, gender, and employment. The first model showed higher aggression levels for those experiencing higher residential density. In the second model, residential density was associated with subjective crowding, which in turn was (more strongly) associated with aggression. In the final model, perceived privacy significantly mediated the relationship between residential density and subjective crowding. Conclusions. Results suggest that when objective living space per person is low, it can affect residents’ perceived ability to control privacy, resulting in feelings of crowding and subsequent aggression. Our findings have implications for housing planning and policy shifting the focus away from size to floor plan quality in promoting residents' wellbeing.