Frequency of contact with friends and relatives via internet and psychosocial factors in middle-aged and older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings from the German Ageing Survey

Objectives: Previous studies have examined the association between frequency of contact with friends and relatives via internet and psychosocial factors (in terms of loneliness, life satisfaction and depressive symptoms). However, far less is known about such a link during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly based on nationally representative samples. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine this association among middle-aged/older adults.

Methods/design: Data were taken from the short survey of the German Ageing Survey (June/July 2020, 3134 individuals in the analytical sample). The De Jong Gierveld scale was used to quantify loneliness, the Satisfaction with Life Scale was used to quantify life satisfaction and the 10-item version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression was used to quantify depressive symptoms.

Results: Regressions showed that-compared to daily users-less frequent users of the internet for contact with friends and relatives reported increased loneliness, lower life satisfaction and more depressive symptoms. With regard to covariates, better psychosocial factors were associated with medium education (compared to low education), living with partner in the same household (compared to singles), better self-rated health, and favourable COVID-19 factors (in terms of decreased feeling that the Corona crisis is a threat for oneself, not having an infection with the coronavirus and an increased feeling that you can influence an infection with the coronavirus yourself).

Conclusions: Data suggest that individuals with a high frequency of contact with friends and relatives via internet reported better psychosocial factors. Future research in other cultural settings are required.