The Couple Bubble Has Blossomed, Love After Lockdown
While the pandemic is far from over, lockdown is ending around the world and couples are emerging stronger than ever. The Couple Bubble, the nominclaimer given to couples who happily made it through the pandemic, hasn’t popped, simply blossomed. The couples that made it through the pandemic not only survived, but continue to thrive.
Over 850+ of Couply members told us how the lockdown and most recent return to ‘the new normal’ has affected their relationship. It seems that couples who made it through the pandemic in good spirits are also entering back into their social lives with equal optimism.
45%
of couples said that the pandemic brought them closer together
64%
said that life after lock-down has generally been a more positive experience.
While 40% of couples are saying that they are missing quality time with their partner, 61% are excited about going on vacations together (which is a great opportunity for quality time) and 58% are giddy about getting back to going on dates (another great use of quality time).
Making the most, couple bubble
Dating during the pandemic wasn’t easy, at the start there was a rise in break-ups and divorces. However, these couples are not in the study as they were unable to weather the storm. So the couples that made it – how did they do it?
30.9% of the couples said the pandemic had a positive influence on their relationship and 43.2% said they experienced no change in relationship satisfaction.
The Stats
Specifically, couples said the pandemic positively affected their relationship through:
58%
More quality time together
47.8%
Finding gratitude in the simple things
“The pandemic highlighted the weakness in our relationship...”
Many couples admitted that the pandemic forced perspective on their relationship (21.3%) which required extra care and effort. This naturally was met with some growing pains but also allowed for transformation and growth. One couple explained this beautifully saying, “It (the pandemic) highlighted the weaknesses in our relationship, which we are now working hard on to improve. We have a much stronger connection compared to pre-pandemic.”
The majority of the couples that got closer during the pandemic seemed to do so by choice, it didn’t happen by accident.
The pandemic required a harder look at life and intention. Many of the couples in the survey said the most negative thing about the pandemic was a decline in mental health (44%), physical health (31.8%) and the stressful news cycle (45%). The flipside of this is that these things required addressing, as did the relationship. Learning more about communication, intimacy and intentional connection combated these stressors. Couples thank Couply for giving them lots of opportunities and places to start with this.
Was this inevitable?
54%
The majority of the participants are introverted
Looking at the couples we spoke to, we asked them a few questions about their personalities. We asked whether they identified as introverts or extroverts, what kind of attachments they form and their most prominent love language. Here are the results.
More people identified as an ambivert (24.9%), meaning somewhere, while 6.4% said they didn’t know.
33.9%
secure attachment
Attachment Styles
There are four attachment styles, their type and percentage are as follows: secure attachment (33.9%), anxious attachment (25%), avoidant attachment (5.3%), anxious-avoidant (13.6%), and (22.2%) said they didn’t know.
33.1%
said their love language is physical touch
Keep it real
26.9% of folks said quality time, 17.6% marked words of affirmation, and 15.7% said acts of service. Finally, only 4.2% said gift giving and 2.6% said they didn’t know.
But what about the others
Let’s have a zoom in on the extroverts in the data as well as those less securly attached, who it would seem, might have struggled during lockdown. While being stuck inside is (potenitally) an extroverts nightmare, the data shows that lots of the people who marked themselves as extroverted (14.8%) had a generally positive lockdown experience.
Interestingly enough, many of those extroverts marked that the pandemic helped speed their relationship up by either moving in together, getting closer or engaged. This shows that in the face of new obstacles and challenges, there is always a possible solution. One participant who moved in with their partner during lockdown said, “It meant we could focus on one another, without the stress of daily life. We could also connect in a whole new way.” Sometimes it really is all about perspective.
Love after lockdown
Despite all the positives that came from the pandemic,according to the couples who answered our survey, couples still have a positive outlook to life and love after the lockdown.
Only 10.1% of couples in this survey indicated that life after lockdown has been worse for their relationship, where 64.1% said that things have improved and 25.8% said things have stayed the same.
Basically couples that were thriving in the pandemic are thriving in life after lockdown. The things they are noting as positive are different, but in general things are positive. While couples are struggling with spending less quality time together (40.4%), they are excited about spending more intentional quality time together. For example, couples mark going on dates (58%), taking a much needed vacation (61%), and getting back into their hobbies (60%) as the top three reasons why life after lockdown is looking up.
The caveat, Couply
It’s worth mentioning that all of these blossoming, silver-lining-seeing couples have an advantage. They choose to deeply invest in their relationship. We know this because we surveyed couples using our app, Couply, which is designed to help couples grow, blossom, and thrive.
Could it be the app that helped the couples make it through the pandemic? Many of the couples quoted the app as one of the more positive outcomes of the pandemic. “Couply has really helped us communicate better and try new things, we really appreciate it.” Other participants bragged on us saying, “It has definitely helped us understand each other better even after 12 years of being together,” and, “Couply has helped improve our intimacy and communication when we were struggling with both of those crucial aspects of our relationship.”
So while we are happy to report that couples continue to bloosm after lockdown, we do wonder – did we have a big part to play in this?
The Future
It seems imperative that couples will need to learn how to integrate the lessons they learned during lockdown that made their relationship stronger. Skills like communication, being intentional and quality time are very important to all of the couples.
We think we will see a trend in quality date nights, taking full advantage of the world and its grand adventures. Lots of travel and couple holidaying as well as stay-cations. Finally, I think we will see an uptrend in intentional coupledom, learning more about relationship psychology in a couple. For example, more and more people know their love language and attachment style. More couples will turn to us, Couply, to improve on their relationships in a meaningful and fun way.
The Couple Bubble Has Blossomed, Love After Lockdown
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