This article presents findings about the impact of the first Covid‐related lockdown
on the face‐to‐face (FTF) interpersonal contact networks of the Hungarian adult population.
Our primary objective is to understand how the size, composition, and quality of such
networks have changed. We base our analysis on the contact‐diary method. Our data
were collected from two representative surveys of the Hungarian adult population:
one in 2015 (N = 372) and one in May 2020 (N = 1001) during the first wave of the
Covid‐19 epidemic. No decline in the overall bonding social capital can be detected;
however, social isolation has increased. A restructuring has occurred: a considerable
increase manifests in the proportion of kin ties, especially children, and a decrease
in the importance of non‐kin ties, with a particularly sharp decline in friendships.
FTF contacts indicate an increased emotional intensity (except for non‐kin, non‐household
members) and an increase in the length of conversations, but there is a decrease in
the frequency of meeting alters. The changes wrought different effects on different
age groups, with the restrictions most negatively affecting the size of FTF contact
networks for respondents aged 60 years or older. Our findings point to the stability
and resilience of close family relations, yet the doubling of social isolation as
early as May 2020 underlines fears about the pandemic’s potentially detrimental effects
on social connectedness. The decline in friendship ties (and most probably in other
weak ties) may lead to a reduction not only in the amount and scope of accessible
social capital but also to a weakening social integration.
