Coping of Older Adults in Times of COVID-19: Considerations of Temporality Among Dutch Older Adults

OBJECTIVES: Globally, mitigation measures during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have focused on protecting older adults. Earlier disaster studies have shown the importance of including older peoples’ voices to prevent secondary stressors, yet these voices have received little attention during this pandemic. Here, we explore how Dutch older adults view this crisis and cope with measures to contribute to our understanding of coping of older adults in general and during disaster situations more specifically. METHOD: Qualitative study using semistructured telephone interviews with 59 diverse older adults aged 54–95 throughout the Netherlands. RESULTS: Older adults typify this crisis as ungraspable, disrupting their daily and social lives. Despite filling their lives with activities, they experience loss or lack of purpose. They try to follow measures to decrease infection risk and gain control, and use problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies. Emotion-focused strategies used were interpreting their personal vulnerability, self-enhancing comparisons, acceptance, and distraction. In the latter 2 strategies, the temporary nature of measures was emphasized. DISCUSSION: Older adults describe this crisis consistently with earlier findings from disaster studies. They use known coping strategies, but emphasize the duration in relation to their expectation of temporality. This underscores a dynamic, processual approach toward coping that incorporates temporal dimensions such as duration and order. Our findings stress the importance of acknowledging heterogeneity among older adults and adjusting communication about mitigation measures to decrease insecurity and increase resonance. This may make COVID-19 mitigation measures more manageable and age-responsible and allow older adults to start living again.