**1. Introduction**

When talking about cohabitation, we refer to the process of sharing an experience, and to "living with" in a common and defined time and space. It can be described as a process that allows individuals, organizations and communities to manage meaningful and stable relationships in a physical and symbolic space [1,2]. Living together can be described according to three levels of relationship: social, organizational and emotional. When we talk about the social level, the relationships of cohabitation refer to the context of civic society, the interactions in the community and, in a broader sense, in the global social context. Studies on social coexistence are various and mainly concern the debate and encounter between different ethnic groups, cultures, religions and political orientations [3–5], the effects of immigration and social integration processes [6], conflicts related to tolerance, discrimination or crime [7,8], and the construction of a multi-ethnic and multicultural citizenship [9,10]. At the

organizational level, the relationships of cohabitation concern those within the workplace; in this case, individuals do not normally choose each other, and the choice of professional environment is also subject to constraints. The organizational context, on the other hand, is a place wherein many individuals spend a large part of their lives, build relationships and set up shared ways of being together, investing energy, emotions and hopes. The studies that have dealt with areas and dimensions related to organizational cohabitation refer, in particular, to cultures and organizational climate [11–13], organizational citizenship [14,15], and organizational well-being and health [16–18]. Thirdly, on an emotional level, cohabitation relationships concern those within the family of origin, between parents and children or between relatives within an extended family, or relationships as a couple within marriage or outside of marriage, where the members of the couple share a common project and imagine a future together. Studies on emotional cohabitation address the issue of family relationships between parents and children and between siblings [19,20], the reasons for the success or failure of couples' relationships [21,22], and living together in peer groups [23]. Other studies have investigated emotional cohabitation in particular situations, such as the complexity faced by families in managing new lifestyles and relationships [24], cohabitation in a family with a seriously ill child [25], and changes in cohabitation following catastrophic events [26].

At the beginning of 2020 an unexpected event occurred: a pandemic caused by a new strain of coronavirus—never previously identified in humans—which took the name SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome–Coronavirus–2) according to the indications of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), which deals with the designation and naming of viruses. Italy, for some weeks, has been the second country in terms of number of infections after China. On 24 February, the first decrees of restrictions and social distancing for schools and shops in two northern regions were approved, restrictions that were extended to the whole nation on March 9 by the Ministry of Health.

This pandemic has deeply altered the rhythms and styles of the emotional, as well as working and social, coexistence of millions of individuals following the measures adopted by the Italian Government to deal with the epidemiological emergency (Decree-Law no. 19 of 25 March 2020; Decree-Law no. 33 of 16 May 2020). Strong restrictions were imposed on the free circulation of individuals, and they were forbidden to leave their place of residence except for proven reasons. This has kept some individuals from reaching their homes and their families; it has interrupted, for a large majority of citizens, sociality and organizational coexistence by forcing smart-working. It has forced families and cohabitants to spend their entire days and weeks in the same physical space, interacting with partners and children with a very different degree of intimacy than in the earlier situation.

The issue of the opportunities and difficulties of living together, already well known in the life experience of all individuals, has acquired new attention in terms of investigating its possible effects on the level of affective coexistence that more than two months of confinement have entailed.

The aim of the research is to investigate, through an online questionnaire, the effects of cohabitation caused by COVID-19 lockdown on different types of living together (partner, partner and children, relatives), on various dimensions such as stress, coping strategies, time perception and quality evaluation of cohabitation.
