COVID-19 is more dangerous for older people—and so, many assumed, the pandemic would be more dangerous for their mental health, too. In the spring of 2020, we heard about younger people volunteering to visit outdoors with elderly people living alone or take care of shopping for them.
But as researchers began studying how the pandemic was affecting our mental health, a surprising finding emerged: Older people were doing much better than their younger counterparts. In surveys of over 63 countries, it was younger people who were more stressed, depressed, and anxious during the first pandemic spring.
