Social contact is a necessity — not an option

With more local lockdowns and limits to socializing being imposed, what does this mean for our health and development?

As a species we need social contact and, as long as it's welcomed, the more we can have of it the better. However, the form it takes, and the needs it fulfils, vary across our lifespan.

Babies come into the world almost completely helpless. For some years they depend on others to feed them, keep them warm and clean, and teach them how to survive in the community.

Loving, direct care is more important to baby mammals even than nourishment, as experiments with rhesus monkeys by Harry Harlow at the University of Wisconsin demonstrated.

Loving, direct care is more important to baby mammals even than nourishment

If a baby is consistently deprived of attention from a human carer, British psychologist John Bowlby argued they could become emotionally detached; unresponsive to others. As they grow, the amount of holding and direct physical contact decreases somewhat, although toddlers continue to seek direct physical contact whenever they're distressed or feel unsafe. And during the preschool years it is essential for a child to spend time directly with others so they can learn how to get on with people of different ages, develop linguistic ability and further their social and cognitive skills. Young children learn best by modelling — copying the behaviour of those around them, as Albert Bandura at Stanford demonstrated.

Once children reach school age, social contact with peers becomes the major focus. As psychologist Erik Erikson explained in his book Identity and the Life Cycle, children and adolescents learn who they are, with what groups they identify and, toward the end of adolescence, what makes them unique within those circles, by interacting with those around them.

In adulthood the desire for intimacy, to find a partner and procreate (if that is their choice), to feel safe and secure and to know where they belong, drives the need for social contact.

As we age, social contact becomes paramount. This is the time when we need to tell others about what we've done, when and with whom. It's the time when hopefully we come to know that our efforts were appreciated. In later life, just as during our younger years, social contact is a necessity, not an option.