Age and Adaptation: Unraveling the Role of Social Connections in Coping with COVID-19 Across Young and Older Adults

Abstract

Social connections are central to the human experience and necessary for successful adjustment to mass disasters such as COVID-19. However, people's utilization of social connections to navigate life circumstances differs across developmental stages. We explored how components of social relationships might differ in importance to the adjustment of young (18–35) and older (55+) adults to COVID-19. This mixed-method study used data collected online in April 2020 from adults (n = 268 young, n = 128 old). We used exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine pathways between social connectedness and adjustment to COVID-19 across young and older adults, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) models, a machine learning technique, to provide context to these pathways. In young adults, feelings of love, social safeness, and perceived social support were connected to reduced loneliness, with love and social safeness also tied to higher life satisfaction. Among older adults, only feeling loved was linked to decreased loneliness, and only perceived social support predicted increased life satisfaction. Finally, resilience was the explanatory link between social safeness and better adjustment during the pandemic. Both age groups expressed similar concerns around COVID-19 experiences assessed via NLP, and these two groups drew strength from different aspects of social connections for different components of adjusting to COVID-19. These results emphasize the importance of age-specific social support strategies in enhancing resilience and adjustment during global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.