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Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.3511
igaa057.3511
Abstracts
Session 10500 (Late Breaking Poster)
COVID-19 Pandemic
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Understanding the relationship between age and information-seeking in the context of COVID-19
Chu Li 1 Pauly Theresa 2 Garza Elizabeth Zambrano 3 Gerstorf Denis 4 Hoppmann Christiane 3 1 
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, China
2 
University of Zurich, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
3 
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
4 
Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”961 961
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
Socioemotional selectivity theory proposes that older adults engage in less information-seeking than younger adults as future time perspective becomes more limited and expansive goals are prioritized less. However, gathering information is crucial in emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for older adults, who are particularly vulnerable to the virus. This study aims to better understand the association between age and information-seeking patterns during the current pandemic. Two hundred and sixty-six participants (age range = 18 – 84, Mage = 38.86, female = 77.06%, received postsecondary education = 83.08%, born in Canada = 73.68%) completed an online study between May and August 2020. We found that older age was associated with more information-seeking time (b = .45, SE = .16, p < .001). We then investigated whether perceived worries of getting COVID-19 might provide insights into this association. Findings point to a partial mediation with a significant direct effect (b = .37, SE = .16, p = .02, 95% bootstrap CI=[.07, .68]), a marginally significant indirect effect (b = .08, SE = .04, p = .06, 95% bootstrap CI=[-.003, .18]) and a significant total effect (b = .46, SE = .16, p < .001, 95% bootstrap CI=[.14, .77]). That is, older adults engaged in more information-seeking than younger adults in contexts in which information-seeking was personally relevant as indicated by perceived worries. These findings shed light on key correlates of information-seeking in older adulthood and highlight the importance for government and health organizations to make suitable information accessible for older adults.