« Call Me More!”… During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The pandemic has been challenging the stability in feelings of happiness and well-being in Switzerland. The wealthy and the young report having suffered relatively more than other population groups. Moreover, one of the essential aspects for well-being is social contact. A good share of the elderly state that they would have liked to be more frequently in contact with their family. Despite the less frequent social contact, more than 80% of people reported satisfaction with the quality of their relationships in all demographic groups.
The Swiss Federal Statistical Institute recently published a very interesting series of experimental statistics monitoring the living conditions of the Swiss population during the pandemic. Through the data, we learned that 40.2% of the population experienced a drop in morale due to the pandemic.
Mood Drop Affecting the Young, the Wealthy and the Urban
Using indicators taken from the statistics on income and living conditions coordinated at the European level, the Swiss Federal Statistical Office observed that since the beginning of the health crisis, the share of people reporting that they were always or most of the time happy had fallen significantly to 73.9% in the first half of 2021 (compared to 79.2% before the 2020 lockdown). At the same time, the proportion of people saying they were very satisfied with their current life had fallen from 40.7% to 36.6%. These changes are impressive considering that the subjective well-being reported in Switzerland is usually high and has the tendency to stay high over time. The pandemic is therefore shaking the Swiss stability in happiness.
The people feeling down in the dumps are particularly those living in highly dense areas, with a high income and a graduate degree. The increase in depressive feelings came together with a decrease in the frequency of social contact. Because of the imposed social distancing, the number of people who reported not having a drink or sharing a meal at least once a month with friends or family as well as those who were unable to engage in a paid leisure activities increased significantly in 2021. The biggest increase was among people in the highest income group: they were four times more likely to give up the opportunity to meet friends or family for a drink or meal for any reason.
According to the survey, depressive feelings varied across the age groups. The elderly expressed fewer negative feelings than the younger age group: 26% of the population 65+ mentioned a mood drop compared to 55.1% of those between 16 and 24 years old.
The Elderly Lament the Lack of Contact
Our data on the feelings of loneliness and the need for social contacts among the elderly population during the pandemic contribute further to this debate. This new data, based on the Transnational Ageing Survey on the life and travel experiences of people aged 55+ in Switzerland, draws on questions such as the frequency of contact between family members, frequency of feelings of loneliness or even the number of close contacts in Switzerland that could be counted on in case of serious problems. The replies of the 2’176 participants (Swiss and migrants) from the 16th of March 2020 until the beginning of the summer reveal that 39.8% of the people aged 55 years old or more would have liked to have had more frequent contact with their family during the pandemic.
Due to a geographically dispersed family network, people with a migration background felt the lack of family contact (58.4%) much more than people without it (33.9%). Transnational families, whose members are spread across national borders, are more widespread than one would think. During the course of their lives, more than half of our participants reported having had a dispersed family network (53% – Swiss and migrants combined) at least once. In Switzerland, most of our participants have a social network composed of at least three people or more on whom they can count on, but these personal resources were not homogeneously distributed among the population and were more common among people without a migration background (72.5% vs. 57.5%).
The use of online calls with (26.9%) or without image (51.6%) through WhatsApp, Skype or FaceTime, including messaging on social networks (39.1%) and e-mails (44.7%) allowed to virtually cross borders and stay in contact, but these solutions were not enough to keep people’s moods high.
General Satisfaction with the Quality of Relationships
The lack of contact was often accompanied by feelings of loneliness. A quarter of our survey participants (25.2%) felt at least sometimes lonely during the pandemic. Again, the feeling of loneliness was more frequent among the elderly with a migration background (38.2%) than among people without one (21%).
Despite the less frequent social contact, however, and in line with what was published by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, more than 80% of people, with or without a migration background, mentioned being highly satisfied with the quality of their family relationships. The general dissatisfaction experienced in this particular period seems to be, therefore, more associated with the decrease in the frequency of social contact than in the quality of the family relationships.
Laura Ravazzini works at the Swiss Federal Statistical Office and at the Institute of Sociology of the University of Neuchâtel. Within the NCCR-on the move, she currently collaborates in the project “Transnational Ageing: Post-Retirement Mobilities, Transnational Lifestyles and Care Configurations.”
References :
https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/fr/home/actualites/quoi-de-neuf.assetdetail.19204349.html
https://www.experimental.bfs.admin.ch/expstat/fr/home/methodes-innovation/silc.html
https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2021/overview-life-under-covid-19/
https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2021/social-connection-and-well-being-during-covid-19/
https://nccr-onthemove.ch/research/enquete-sur-le-vieillissement-transnational/
Tomás, L., & Ravazzini, L. (2021). Inclusiveness Plus Mixed-Methods: An Innovative Research Design on Transnational Practices of Older Adults, The Gerontologist, gnab128, https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnab128
