Has the COVID-19 pandemic affected older adults' personal and general views on aging? Evidence for losses and gains

Abstract

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic might have affected older adults' personal and general views on aging (VoA) because they were frequently, particularly during the early phase of the pandemic, portrayed as a homogeneous, vulnerable group in the media and in public debates. Also, their higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease progression as well as other pandemic-related stressors and restrictions might have impacted how older adults perceive their own aging. In this study, it was examined to which extent middle-aged and older adults' personal and general VoA changed due to the pandemic by distinguishing between normative age-graded change across multiple measurement occasions and potentially pandemic-specific history-graded change. Multiple VoA indicators (personal VoA: attitude toward own aging, subjective age, awareness of age-related change [gains and losses]; general VoA: domain-specific age stereotypes) of 423 German adults aged 40 years and older were assessed across three prepandemic measurement occasions (2012, 2015, and 2017) and one occasion after the pandemic's outbreak (summer 2020). Normative age-graded changes and pandemic-specific changes were estimated and compared using longitudinal multilevel regression analyses. Both perceived age-related gains and age-related losses decreased between 2012 and 2017, but increased thereafter between 2017 and 2020. Further, the overall change trend toward less positive attitude toward own aging slowed down from 2017 to 2020. There was also a slight trend toward younger subjective ages from 2017 to 2020. For most age stereotypes, pandemic-specific trends indicated a shift toward more negative stereotypes. These findings suggest that pandemic-specific changes in VoA are multidirectional, comprising perceptions of both losses and gains. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Figure 1. Change in Subjective Views on Aging between 2012 and 2020

Note. Time unit is years (since 2012). ATOA = attitude toward own aging. Subjective age was computed as a proportional discrepancy score (Rubin & Berntsen, 2006), corresponding to the extent felt age deviates from chronological age (subjective age = [felt age – chronological age]/chronological age), with scores indicating a person’s felt age as a percentage of their chronological age. The solid lines correspond to the mean-level change in VoA according to a model with an additional pandemic-specific change component between 2017 (pre-pandemic measurement occasion) and 2020 (time of the first COVID-19 infection wave) in addition to an overall linear change component across the entire time period of 8 years. The dashed lines correspond to the mean change in VoA according to a model with only one linear change component across the entire 8-year time period.

Figure 2. Change in General Views on Aging (Age Stereotypes) Between 2012 and 2020

Note. Time unit is years (since 2012). The solid lines correspond to the mean-level change in VoA according to a model with an additional pandemic-specific change component between 2017 (pre-pandemic measurement occasion) and 2020 (time of the first COVID-19 infection wave) in addition to an overall linear change component across the entire time period of 8 years. The dashed lines correspond to the mean change in VoA according to a model with only one linear change component across the entire 8-year time period.