Background and Objectives With the goal of slowing down the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, restrictions to physical contacts have been taken in many countries. We examine to what extent intergenerational and other types of non-physical contacts have reduced the risk of increased perceived depressive feelings during the lockdown for people aged 50+. Research Design and Methods We implemented an on-line panel survey based on quota sampling in France, Italy, and Spain in April 2020, about one month after the start of the lockdown. Our analyses are based on logistic regression models and use post-stratification weights. Results About 50% of individuals aged 50+ felt sad or depressed more often than usual during the lockdown in the three considered countries. Older people who increased or maintained unchanged non-physical contacts with non-coresident individuals during the lockdown were at a lower risk of increased perceived depressive feelings compared to those who experienced a reduction in non-physical contacts. The beneficial effect of non-physical contacts was stronger for intergenerational relationships. The effects were similar by gender and stronger among individuals aged 70+, living in Spain and not living alone before the start of the lockdown. Discussion and Implications In the next phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, or during future similar pandemic, policy makers may implement measures that balance the need to reduce the spread of the virus with the necessity of allowing for limited physical contacts. Social contacts at a distance may be encouraged as a means to keep social closeness, while being physically distant.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 originated in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019 and rapidly spread in more than 100 countries. Researchers in different fields have been working on finding explanations for the unequal impact of the virus and deaths from the associated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) across geographical areas. Demographers and other social scientists have hinted at the importance of demographic factors, such as age structure and intergenerational relationships. Our aim is to reflect on the possible link between intergenerational relationships and spread and lethality of COVID-19 in a critical way. We show that with available aggregate data it is not possible to draw robust evidence to support these links. In fact, despite a higher prevalence of intergenerational coresidence and contacts that is broadly positively associated with COVID-19 case fatality rates at the country level, the opposite is generally true at the subnational level. While this inconsistent evidence demonstrates neither the existence nor the absence of a causal link between intergenerational relationships and the severity of COVID-19, we warn against simplistic interpretations of the available data, which suffer from many shortcomings. We conclude by arguing that intergenerational relationships are not only about physical contacts between family members. Theoretically, different forms of intergenerational relationships may have causal effects of opposite sign on the diffusion of COVID-19. Policies should also take into account that intergenerational ties are a source of instrumental and emotional support, which may favor compliance to the lockdown and “phase-2” restrictions and may buffer their negative consequences on mental health.

Physical distancing is intended to mitigate the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, the impact of a decrease in face-to-face contacts on non-physical social contacts of older people remains unclear. In particular, we focus on intergenerational contacts that are especially relevant for older people’s mental health. Our analyses rely on an online quota sampling survey conducted in France, Italy and Spain during April 14–24, 2020. We considered the subsample of individuals aged 50 + (N = 4207). We calculated post-stratification weights based on official statistics and used logistic regressions to analyze how changes in intergenerational contacts differed by socioeconomic factors and to what extent non-physical contacts (via phone, social media, etc.) have compensated the reduction in face-to-face contacts. Finally, the change in digital devices’ use has been explored as a consequence of both decreased physical intergenerational contacts (PIC) and increased non-physical intergenerational contacts (NPIC). We found that about 50% of older people have increased their NPIC during the first lockdown. Younger individuals, those with medium level of education, and those economically better off displayed higher probabilities of increased NPIC as compared to their counterparts. NPIC increased especially for individuals whose face-to-face contacts decreased, particularly so if this happened with respect to contacts with children. A large share of older people has increased their use of video calls and instant messages, while only some increased the use of social media. These findings are relevant to understand how intergenerational contacts changed during the pandemic and may be central to better plan future outbreak responses.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, originated in Wuhan (China) at the end of 2019, rapidly spread in more than 100 countries. Researchers in different fields have been working on finding explanations for the unequal impact of the virus, and deaths from the associated disease (COVID-19), in different geographical areas. Demographers and other social scientists, have hinted at the importance of demographic factors, such as age structure and intergenerational relationships. The goal of this article is to reflect on the possible link between intergenerational relationships and COVID-19 cases in a critical way. We show that with available aggregate data it is not possible to draw robust evidence to support such a link. In fact, at the country-level higher prevalence of intergenerational co-residence and contacts is broadly positively associated with number of COVID-19 cases (per 100,000 persons), but the opposite is generally true at the sub-national level. While this inconsistent evidence neither demonstrates the existence nor the inexistence of a causal link between intergenerational relationships and the prevalence of COVID-19 cases, we warn against simplistic interpretations of the available data which suffer from many shortcomings. Only retrospective individual level data will provide robust evidence on the role of intergenerational ties. We conclude arguing that intergenerational relationships are not only about physical contacts between family members. From a theoretical point of view, different forms of intergenerational relationships may have causal effects of opposite sign on the diffusion of COVID-19. Policies devoted at fighting the spread of COVID-19 should also take into account that intergenerational ties are a source of instrumental and emotional support, which may favor compliance to the lockdown and “phase-2” restrictions and may buffer their negative consequences on mental health.

The COVID-19 pandemic has limited individuals’ possibility to meet and socialize with others due to the state of emergency restrictions to movements, events and relations imposed in different countries. Most shops and restaurants have been closed and some economic activities have been seriously damaged. This significant disruption may have contributed to a deterioration of people’s mental health on top of other negative consequences of the pandemic. To better understand the indirect consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak on people’s lives we have designed the intergen-COVID online survey (https://sites.google.com/unifi.it/intergen-covid), carried out in France, Italy and Spain between the 14th to the 24th of April 2020. Quota sampling on the population 18-plus and post-stratification weights were used to achieve the alignment between the sample (N = 9,056) and the total population on important socio-demographic characteristics.We collected information on four key domains of individuals’ lives: intergenerational (and other type of) relationships (physical and non-physical; means of communication; frequency, etc.); living arrangements; mental health; events experienced during the lockdown (e.g., income loss, death of relative/friend due to COVID-19, worsened partner relationships, time spent with family); intentions for the future 3 years (e.g., fertility, living parental home, marriage, cohabitation, divorce/separation, retirement). In this paper we provide the main results from this survey, focusing on the first three domains abovementioned. The fourth domain consists of questions applicable to different sub-groups of the population and will be analyzed in separate papers. We show that, despite the general reduction of physical contacts, with low educated people reporting a lower reduction in all kinds of physical contacts, non-physical contacts have significantly increased, especially among women. About 50% of respondents felt sad or depressed more often than usual during the lockdown, but mental health deterioration was found to be heterogeneous and vary with respondents’ age, gender and country. Job and income loss, and worsening of relationships quality were other negative consequences often experienced during the lockdown, especially by younger individuals. Finally, although maintaining physical distance, during the lockdown people have experienced a high level of social connection, emotional support and practical help.