Age
Generally, stress levels tend to decrease with age and although older adults report poorer perceived health, they have lower stress levels and higher well‐being than young adults (Archer et al., 2015). Bergdahl and Bergdahl (2002) found that self‐reported stress levels increase from the age of 20 to a peak in the 40s, and then decrease to the lowest level in the 60s. Stone et al. (2010) argued that well‐being increases after 50 years of age, proposing an inverted U‐shaped relationship between age and well‐being (but see Frackowiak et al., 2020). Studies generally support the notion that older people are less affected by stressors than younger people (Feizi et al., 2012).
Few studies have investigated the relationship between age and stress levels during quarantine. The objective consequences of being infected by SARS‐CoV‐2 are higher for the older population (World Health Organization, 2020a, 2020b). However, while the perceptions of a highly transmitted illness threat among the elderly may prompt stress, the empirical evidence is mixed. For instance, Taylor et al. (2008) found that the negative psychological impact of quarantine is more pronounced among younger people. Investigating psychosocial responses towards a national outbreak of SARS in Singapore, Sim et al. (2010) found that psychiatric morbidities are associated with younger age and higher posttraumatic stress symptoms. Most recently, an online survey in the early stages of the COVID‐19 outbreak in China found no association between age and stress (Wang et al., 2020).
As such, although older adults face higher risks of severe disease and death due to COVID‐19 (WHO, 2020b), the evidence suggests that older people are less stressed and less affected by psychological consequences of quarantine and social isolation, while younger ones exhibit the highest levels of stress.