Well-being trajectories of middle-aged and older adults and the corona pandemic: No “COVID-19 effect” on life satisfaction, but increase in depressive symptoms.

Abstract

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to profound changes in individuals’ lives and might have meaningful implications for well-being. We investigated if and how two major indicators of well-being (life satisfaction and depressive symptoms) changed in Germany from a prepandemic measurement occasion (2017) to June/July 2020, the time of the fading first wave of COVID-19. This change was compared with prepandemic change between 2014 and 2017. We also analyzed whether change in well-being varied according to age, self-rated health, corona-specific attitudes, and subjective standard of living. Ten thousand seven-hundred and ninety three individuals had taken part in at least one of the measurement occasions between 2014 and 2020 (mean age in 2014: 64.30 years; SD = 11.58 years). Based on latent change score models controlling for baseline well-being and sociodemographic indicators, we found, across both time intervals (2014–2017, 2017–2020) and independent of individuals’ age, a small mean-level increase in life satisfaction. In contrast, depressive symptoms increased from 2017 to 2020, particularly among older participants, whereas they remained, on average, stable between 2014 and 2017. Individuals with a poorer self-rated health, who felt more threatened by the pandemic and whose subjective standard of living was lower revealed a decrease in life satisfaction and a steeper increase in depressive symptoms between 2017 and 2020. Our findings thus suggest that whereas life satisfaction remained quite stable, the pandemic was, already 3–4 months after its onset in Germany, accompanied by an increase in depressive symptoms, particularly among adults who were older, felt less healthy and were more concerned about COVID-19.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Trajectories of Well-Being of Middle-Aged and older Adults: A Multidimensional and Multidirectional Perspective

“…Generally, this finding in line with our assumption that the susceptibility of well-being to “COVID-19 effects” might be domain-specific. Decline in life satisfaction due to the pandemic, which we found for some, though not all individuals, has also been reported by other studies (Bittmann, 2021 ; Schlomann et al, under review; Schwinger et al, 2020 ; Zacher & Rudolph, 2020 ), although there are also studies reporting stability, or even slight increase, in life satisfaction despite COVID-19 (e.g., Entringer et al, 2020 ; Wettstein et al, 2021 ).…”

“…We also assume that, as middle-aged and older adults represent a considerably heterogeneous group (Nelson & Dannefer, 1992 ), also with regard to well-being levels and changes (e.g., Wettstein et al, 2015 ), well-being trajectories related to the pandemic are not the same in size and direction for each individual (Wettstein et al, 2021 ). Some subgroups might thus be at a higher risk of well-being decline than others (Entringer et al, 2020 ; Schäfer et al, 2020 ; Wettstein et al, 2021 ). Specifically, we will control for age, gender, education, and self-rated health.…”

“…Higher levels of education are usually associated with higher well-being scores, although this association is small (Diener et al, 1999 ), and higher education might also buffer the negative psychosocial consequences of the pandemic on individuals, e.g. with regard to their well-being (Benke et al, 2020 ; Ohlbrecht & Jellen, 2021 ; Traunmüller et al, 2020 ; Wettstein et al, 2021 ). For instance, individuals with higher levels of education perceive a higher subjective control over a potential infection with the Corona virus (Wettstein et al, 2020 ), which might contribute to less distress and fear in this group than among individuals with lower education.…”

Contextual determinants of subjective age in midlife and old age: The example of daily variations in COVID-19 infection rates.

“…They might benefit more from feeling younger in times of high pandemic threat (as indicated by a high infection rate), thereby coping with this threat and potentially reducing their feeling of risk, than individuals who are less worried about their health. Perceived health and health worries have indeed been found to be related with how threatened and distressed individuals feel during the pandemic (Jungmann & Witthöft, 2020;Traunmüller et al, 2020;Wettstein et al, 2020Wettstein et al, , 2022.…”

“…Therefore, we additionally analyze whether the association between subjective age and reported COVID-19 cases on the day of assessment is stronger among individuals who report more health-related worries during the pandemic in summer/autumn 2020. These individuals might perceive themselves as more vulnerable in general and feel more distressed and threatened by the pandemic (Jungmann & Witthöft, 2020;Traunmüller et al, 2020;Wettstein et al, 2020Wettstein et al, , 2022. They could thus reveal a particularly pronounced age-group dissociation effect at times of higher pandemic-related threats (i.e., higher infection rates) by reporting a younger subjective age, which helps them to cope with the pandemic situation as well as to reduce their psychological distress and sense of threat.…”