Background and Objectives Older adults might be less information-seeking in comparison to younger adults. Yet, when a crisis hits, rather than relying on only a few information sources, it is important for people to gather information from a variety of different sources. With more information sources, people are more likely to obtain a more realistic perception of the situation and engagement of health behaviors. This study examined the association between age and information-seeking patterns, and how information-seeking patterns influenced worry about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and protective measures taken during the pandemic. Research Design and Methods This study was conducted from March to May 2020. Ninety younger adults and 105 older adults were recruited in a 21-day daily diary study. Participants reported the types of sources where they received COVID-19-related information, worry from these information sources and protective health behaviors performed each day. Multilevel serial mediation analysis was performed. Results Concurrent and time-lagged analyses both revealed that older adults received information from more sources, and more frequently from traditional (e.g., newspaper and TV) and interpersonal sources (e.g., information shared by friends and families), than did younger adults. When receiving information from more sources, older adults were more worried about COVID-19 and performed more protective health behaviors. Discussion and Implications These results demonstrated the utility of having more information sources in the context of a public health crisis and offered suggestions for future public communication and community engagement.

With global aging, it is crucial to understand how older adults and the process of aging are viewed by members of society. These attitudes can often influence how older adults are treated. Since the Journal of Gerontology was founded, we have gained increasing insights into attitudes toward aging, with several notable research developments, including clearer conceptualization of different types of aging attitudes (e.g., life-domain-specific attitudes and self-perceptions of aging), a wider variety of measurements, better understanding of how different social determinants shape aging attitudes, and more sophisticated investigations of cultural variance and invariance in aging attitudes. In this article, we highlight these major shifts in the field of aging attitudes in the past 75 years, discuss the contributions of these developments, and point to potential future directions.

Individuals' understanding of wealth and power largely determines their use of resources. Moreover, the age range of wealth and power holders is increasing in modern societies. Thus, the current study examines how people of different ages understand wealth and power. As varying future time perspective is related to changes in prioritised life goals, it was tested as a potential mediator of the age differences. A total of 133 participants aged 18-78 years were asked 8 open-ended questions regarding their understanding of the and of wealth and power, after which they reported their future time perspective. Compared with possible use, the participants mentioned relatively more prosocial elements when they talked about their desired use of the resources, especially power. The older adults expressed more prosocial understanding in regard to the desired use of wealth and the possible use of power compared to their younger counterparts. The age differences were fully mediated by future time perspective. The results suggest that age is a critical factor that influences individuals' conceptualisation of wealth and power. Life-span developmental stage and future time perspective are important factors to consider for explaining individual differences in the exercise of wealth and power and for promoting their prosocial usage.

Lack of social interaction is associated with a heightened sense of loneliness and, in turn, poorer psychological well-being. Despite the prevalence of communicating with others virtually even when physically alone, whether the social interaction–loneliness–well-being relationship is different between face-to-face and virtual interactions and between younger and older adults is relatively understudied. This 21-day diary study examined this question among younger ( n = 91; Mage = 22.87) and older ( n = 107; Mage = 64.53) Hong Kong participants during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (March–May 2020). We found significant indirect effects of shorter face-to-face interaction time on poorer psychological well-being via a heightened sense of loneliness at the within-person level only among younger adults and at the between-person level only among older adults. Independent of loneliness, spending more time with others on virtual interactions was associated with better psychological well-being only among older adults. Taken together, while the mechanisms may be different across age groups, face-to-face interaction remains an effective way to reduce loneliness and enhance psychological well-being even at times when it is discouraged (e.g., pandemic). Although virtual interaction does not reduce loneliness, its positive impact on older adults’ well-being sheds light on the utility of promoting technological acceptance in late adulthood.

The results suggest that generativity concern is a construct that applies to both young and older adults. It can even be more influential to young adults' cognitive conceptualization in certain aspects (e.g., understanding of wealth) than that of older adults. Future studies can further investigate the general impact of generativity concern as well as the behavioral consequences of people's understanding of wealth. The results were also discussed in the context of lifelong learning.