COLUMBIA, Mo. – Coronavirus has changed our lives one way or another, including our ability to have and maintain relationships during social distancing.

A podcast on “Managing Relationships While Social Distancing” features a panel of four relationship researchers, including Kale Monk, assistant professor and state extension specialist in the University of Missouri College of Human Environmental Sciences.

Panelists discuss mental health, managing anxiety in the family, self-compassion, parenting during COVID-19, romantic relationships, friendships, loneliness and online dating during these unique times.

“During times of stress and change we can typically be on edge,” Monk said. “Any time that there’s a change in our environment, or the way that we interact, it requires us to react differently to each other and changing patterns can sometimes be really difficult.” The panelists offer ideas, based on their research, on how to navigate such “relational turbulence.”

This segment is part of the Relevate Presents Scholars Ship podcast about romantic relationship research. (No longer available online.) A video version is available at youtu.be/vy8Zwt62BXs.

Featured scholars/guests often use examples from the media to talk about how relationships are portrayed in movies and on TV and how that relates to real life interactions based on research.

Monk also was interviewed recently for a Missourinet article about virtual dating in a COVID-19 world.

Images available for this release:

https://extension.missouri.edu/media/wysiwyg/Extensiondata/NewsAdmin/Photos/2020/20200514-relevate-1.jpg
MU assistant professor and state extension specialist Kale Monk, top right, and other panelists discussed relationships in the COVID-29 era in a recent podcast.

https://extension.missouri.edu/media/wysiwyg/Extensiondata/NewsAdmin/Photos/2020/2020514-relevate-2.jpg
Kale Monk, MU assistant professor and state extension specialist.

Writer: Katherine Foran