Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Loneliness became an increasing concern during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as countries enacted "physical distancing" mitigation measures. Under these conditions, older adults with limited family availability (e.g., unpartnered, childless, and "kinless") might have been at higher loneliness risk, or perhaps were more accustomed to less social interaction. Using individual-level data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and country-level data from the Oxford Coronavirus Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), we analyzed loneliness outcomes for 34,943 older Europeans in 26 countries to examine associations between various types of family availability and loneliness under different COVID-19 stringency conditions. More stringent COVID-19 country contexts and being unpartnered were associated with loneliness, but "kinless" older adults had similar risk of loneliness as unpartnered older adults, underscoring the highly protective role of partnership. We discuss these findings considering the growing global population with limited family ties and make recommendations for future pandemic mitigation efforts.
Source: Research on Aging
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Social Sciences & Humanities Open Cloud, Multinational Advancement of Research Infrastructures on Ageing, G1178032220, G1237079599, G1330667123, G1428006373, G1565542540, G1608581485, G1708035608, G1750703574, G1778268290, G1781191216, G1820526844, G2077389594, G2343781458, G24207250, G2465118858, G2576676356, G2593358879, G2841052746, G2881429984, G288447808, G3166864496, G323020161, Achieving world-class standards in all SHARE countries, G3361099077, G3440788226, G3457581384, G3497955178, G3654244103, G3687180791, G4096536797, G4165969582, RAND Center for the Study of Aging, G4290142911, G434337789, Upgrading the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe – preparatory phase, G4545110052, G4569152855, G4587185496, Cohesion in further developing and innovating SHARE across all 28 member countries, G4723430573, G4847675667, HRS Minority Sample Expansion Competitive Revision, G5021238699, G503278667, G504669776, G5062201959, Data Service Infrastructure for the Social Sciences and Humanities, G5207492846, G5618942462, Non-intended health, economic and social effects of the COVID-19 epidemic control decisions: Lessons from SHARE (SHARE-COVID19), G5857780965, G6053673296, G6055688980, G6122222817, G6476390097, G6678519423, G6767647029, G6969501727, G6978085111, Synergies for Europe's Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences, G751768989, DEVELOPING AN ISRAELI VERSION OF THE HRS/SHARE PROJECT, G8072554765, G859642178, G8677177991, Longitudinal Enhancement and Access imProvement of the SHARE infrastructure, G8806983220, G8875743412, G8957671751, G9000113159, G93458789
OpenAlex ID: W4409726333