Premium
Contact with older people, ageism, and containment behaviours during the COVID ‐19 pandemic
Author(s) -
Visintin Emilio Paolo
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of community and applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.042
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1099-1298
pISSN - 1052-9284
DOI - 10.1002/casp.2504
Subject(s) - pandemic , containment (computer programming) , stereotype (uml) , covid-19 , vulnerability (computing) , psychology , public health , contact theory , population , gerontology , social psychology , environmental health , medicine , nursing , disease , engineering , computer security , structural engineering , pathology , computer science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , programming language
To reduce and slow the spread of the coronavirus during the pandemic, people throughout countries are asked to adopt a series of prevention behaviours such as keeping physical distance and using protective devices (containment behaviours). Vulnerability of older people during the pandemic has been stressed by mass‐media and in political communication, calling for protection of this sector of the population. Based on intergroup contact theory and on the stereotype content model, I conducted a correlational study during the coronavirus lockdown in Italy, analysing contact with older people before the pandemic, ageism, and containment behaviours. Quality of contact with older people, favourable attitudes toward older people, and benevolent ageism were found to be positively associated with containment behaviours. Findings suggest that positive intergenerational relations are likely beneficial for public health.