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. 2022 Jul 19;19(4):1327-1338.
doi: 10.1007/s10433-022-00718-x. eCollection 2022 Dec.

Loneliness before and during the COVID-19 pandemic-are unpartnered and childless older adults at higher risk?

Bruno Arpino  1 , Christine A Mair  2 , Nekehia T Quashie  3 , Radoslaw Antczak  4
Affiliations

Loneliness before and during the COVID-19 pandemic-are unpartnered and childless older adults at higher risk?

Bruno Arpino et al. Eur J Ageing. .

Abstract

COVID-19 mitigation efforts had the potential to exacerbate loneliness among older adults, particularly for the unpartnered or childless, yet specific studies on loneliness among these groups during the COVID-19 pandemic are lacking. Using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) collected before (October 2019-March 2020) and during the pandemic (June-August 2020), we examine two loneliness outcomes: (1) "have you felt lonely recently?" (both datasets) and (2) "have you felt lonelier than before the pandemic?" (2020), and examine differences by partnership and parenthood status. Before COVID-19, those who lacked one tie but had the other (unpartnered parents or partnered childless) were at highest loneliness risk. During COVID-19, unpartnered and childless-especially unpartnered-remain at higher risk for loneliness, entering loneliness, and not "exiting" loneliness. We discuss these findings in light of family norms and needs in pandemic and non-pandemic times and provide recommendations for future research.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10433-022-00718-x.

Keywords: Coronavirus; Loneliness; Parenthood; Partnership; SHARE.

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