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Objectives Older adults may experience loneliness due to social distancing and isolation during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Loneliness may further catalyze numerous poor health outcomes including impaired sleep. This study aimed to assess COVID-19 related worries and resilience as potential moderators of the loneliness-sleep problems link. Method In the midst of the lock-down period of COVID-19, we collected data using a web-based public platform from 243 Israeli older adults (mean age = 69.76, SD = 6.69, age range = 60–92). Participants completed measures of COVID-19 related loneliness, sleep problems, COVID-related worries, and resilience. Results COVID-19 related loneliness was related to more sleep problems. The loneliness-sleep association was especially strong among those with more COVID-19 related worries or among those with lower resilience. Conclusion The relationship between COVID-19 related loneliness and sleep problems is not uniform across older adults. The subjective sleep quality of those with more COVID-19 related worries or less resilience (i.e., feeling less being able to adapt to the challenging circumstances) is more susceptible to feeling lonely. Considering these variables may facilitate detection of and intervention for older adults vulnerable to aversive results in the context of COVID-19.

The study examined whether subjective age moderated the relationship between loneliness due to the COVID-19 pandemic and psychiatric symptoms. Methods: A convenience sample of older adult Israelis (N = 277, mean age = 69.58 § 6.72) completed web-based questionnaires comprising loneliness, anxiety, depressive, and peritraumatic distress symptoms. They also reported how old they felt. Results: The positive relationship between loneliness due to the COVID-19 pandemic and psychiatric symptoms was weak among those who felt younger than their age while this very same relationship was robust among those feeling older. Conclusions: Young subjective age may weaken the loneliness-symptom association among older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Older adults holding an older age identity are more susceptible to the adverse effects of loneliness. Although preliminary, the findings may inform screening and interventions. Subjective age may help identify those at high risk in suffering from loneliness, and suggest interventions aimed at ameliorating both loneliness and older subjective ages.

ABSTRACT A prominent feature of anxiety in late life is concerns regarding physical health. Anxiety symptoms among older adults have been connected with various psychological outcomes, including social isolation and loneliness. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many societies have demonstrated increased ageist attitudes, encouraging older adults to distance themselves from society. Accordingly, the current study examined the moderating role of COVID-19-related ageism in the connection between COVID-19 health worries and anxiety symptoms among older adults. Data were collected from 243 older adults (age range 60–92; M = 69.75, SD = 6.69), who completed scales assessing COVID-19-related health worries and ageism, as well as anxiety symptoms. The results demonstrated that both health worries and ageism were positively associated with anxiety symptoms. Moreover, the connection between health worries and anxiety symptoms was more pronounced among older adults with high ageism levels. The study highlights the vulnerability of older adults in general, and ageist older adults in particular, to the negative consequences of COVID-19-related health worries, and emphasizes the role of the increased ageist stance of society during the pandemic in this regard.

We evaluated the associations between loneliness and subjective appraisals of marital relationship as well as reciprocal associations of loneliness in married men and women. The Health and Retirement Study is a national survey of older adults over the age of 50, residing in the US. This study is based on a paper and pencil questionnaire administered in the year 2006. Overall, 2723 couples completed this questionnaire. Loneliness was evaluated using the three-item version of the Revised University of California Los Angeles Loneliness Scale. A non-recursive path analysis was conducted. The model suggested that subjective appraisals of the relationship with spouse play a major role in one's sense of loneliness. In addition, loneliness in men and women shares reciprocal associations. The model explained 24% and 29% of the variability in loneliness reported by married men and women, respectively. Results indicate that capitalizing and enhancing one's social life might also be beneficial for his or her partner. Any intervention to alleviate loneliness in married couples has to take into consideration their perceived marital relationship as well as the reciprocal associations of loneliness in married men and women.

The present study focused on children’s evaluation of the extent to which they received the inner pains of their parents as an important mechanism of intergenerational transmission of trauma among offspring and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors (OHS and GHS, respectively). In a representative sample of 172 OHS (Sample 1) we found that this emotional burden perceived to be transmitted from both parents was related to more Holocaust-related posttraumatic symptoms. Both maternal and paternal burden were related to symptoms regardless of the other parent being a Holocaust survivor. In a convenience sample of 285 parent–child dyads (161 OHS-GHS and 124 comparison dyads; Sample 2) we found that perceived transmission of burden from both parents is positively related to OHS’s Holocaust salience—the extent to which the Holocaust is present in everyday thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. No such relationship existed among comparisons. Moreover, transmission of parental burden as perceived by OHS was positively related to Holocaust salience among GHS. That relationship was mediated by transmission of parental burden as perceived by the GHS themselves (i.e., parental burden from OHS). Our findings suggest that perceived transmission of parental burden is a significant mechanism by which transmission of trauma can linger across generations. We propose that burden commonly transmitted from parents may create generational boundary dissolution and parent–child role reversal. Such familial dynamic may in turn perpetuate secondary traumatization across several generations.

The present study investigated whether several evaluative indicators of subjective well-being (SWB) and subjective health decline as death approaches and which of them shows a stronger decline. Using three-wave longitudinal data from deceased participants of the Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Aging Study (N = 1,360; age range 75-94 at T1= Time 1), we found a stronger decline in most evaluative indicators when plotted by distance-to-death relative to distance from birth. After controlling for background characteristics and physical and cognitive functioning, death-related decline was still found for SWB but not for subjective health. Implications are discussed regarding the well-being paradox and the yet unclear mechanisms that link evaluative indicators to the dying process.

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