Personal Distance Norms and Mental Load of the Covid-19 Pandemic among Older Adults

Malgorzata Mikucka , Mannheim University
Christine Schnor , UCLouvain
Alice Rees , UCLouvain

The COVID-19 pandemic and sanitary the measures exacerbated mental load of people across the globe. This research incorporates cultural differences into the debate on the consequences of COVID-19 by referring to the notion of culturally preferred physical distance (Hall, 1966). We tested two hypotheses: first, that that the mental burden of the pandemic was greater in countries with cultures of close physical contact; second, that in such cultures also the mitigating measures introduced to contain COVID-19 were more detrimental for mental health. We used data on self-reported increase of loneliness, anxiety, and depression, as recorded by SHARE survey for population aged 50+ (14 European countries), and country-specific measures of preferred interpersonal distance, of sanitary measures, and of COVID-19 deaths. Our results showed that in countries with norm for closer physical contact an increase in loneliness was more common, but we did not find that sanitary measures brought greater mental load in these countries. Our results suggest that culture affects the mental impact of COVID-19 pandemic.

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 Presented in Session 53. Consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health