Families Un-locked study reveals lasting impact of pandemic on families Over the past year, the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic has undeniably inflicted wounds on many areas of our lives: mental health, relationships and the economy to name but a few. Now, as we look ahead to the Spring, with easing of the current lockdown restrictions in sight and the continued vaccination programme rollout, the dressing will start to be removed from some of these wounds and we need to be prepared that things might be quite different in the future. Just as health research has discovered that some people are suffering from the long-term physical effects of the coronavirus - the so called ‘long-Covid’ - our own research is finding that the pandemic, lockdowns and associated restrictions imposed will likely have an enduring impact on our relationships. Over the past few months, we collected data from over 1,000 people in the UK as part of the University of Worcester and Relate’s Families Un-locked research study. We asked people to reflect on the effects of the first lockdown, during spring 2020, on ...