Context Matters: Internet Usage and Loneliness Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objectives
Later life is often categorized by higher-than-average levels of loneliness, but individual differences are vast and not well understood. Emerging evidence indicates that broad-based contextual factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic – and the use of the internet throughout – are differentially associated with the experience of loneliness. We therefore target internet usage and loneliness among middle-aged and older adults during the pandemic and examine the moderating role of age, gender, and limiting illness therein.

Methods
We applied hierarchical regression models to data from the COVID-19 sub-study Wave 1 (June/July 2020) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (N= 4,790; Mage= 70.2; SD= 9.0; range: 50-90; 43.5% male).

Results
Infrequent internet use was associated with less loneliness compared to very frequent users – an association that strengthened with age. Conversely, purpose of internet use was associated with more loneliness, with higher levels exhibited by those searching for health-related information – an effect stronger among those with a limiting illness.

Discussion
Findings imply that infrequent internet use may reduce loneliness, while health-related internet searches may increase loneliness among older adults with different physical capacities. Findings are contrary to pre-pandemic reports, underscoring the importance of broad-based contextual factors for understanding loneliness across adulthood and old age.

Rights

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.

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Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbae158

Repository URI

https://researchportal.hw.ac.uk/en/publications/df645300-7c4e-4333-bc77-579cff7e5cec