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

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.3504
igaa057.3504
Abstracts
Session 10500 (Late Breaking Poster)
COVID-19 Pandemic
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
The First COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Restrictions: An Intergenerational Comparison of the Impacts
Glass Anne  Lawlor Lauretta  
University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”958 959
© 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
“Social distancing” and stay-at-home orders were enacted in many states in response to the spread of COVID-19. We sought to understand intergenerational differences in the impact of the initial COVID-19 restrictions on interactions, loneliness, and stress. Data was collected via online survey from individuals ages 18 and above during the period April 7-May 8, 2020. The predominantly female, White, and well-educated sample (n = 962) included 245 younger adults (YAs) ages 18-34, 374 middle-aged adults (MAs) ages 35-64, and 343 older adults (OAs) ages 65+, with overall mean age 51.67 (SD=20.257; range 18-96). Before the restrictions, 41% of these OAs infrequently/never interacted face-to-face with children, increasing to 74% after restrictions. Three quarters (77%) of YAs reported seeing OAs less often, but 42% reported increasing their connections with OAs via technology. About a third of MAs (35%) and OAs (36%) were lonely, compared to 48% of YAs (p = .003), and a higher percentage of YAs (57%) reported being “more lonely” now, compared to MAs (36%) and OAs (41%). OAs reported the least stress; 42% reported low/very low levels of stress compared to YAs (9%) and MAs (20%). All generations most often identified “being able to go places” as the thing they missed most, but it increased significantly with age (p < .001), from YAs (32%), MAs (37%), to OAs (44%). More YAs (20%) than OAs (7%) reported missing “structure to their day.” Results of these intergenerational comparisons suggest the resilience of older adults is helping them during the current pandemic.