A multiple-group analysis of social Capital and loneliness among community-dwelling older adults in urban China during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Objectives: The present study examined the moderating effects of family social capital on the relationship between community social capital and loneliness among older adults in urban Chinese communities during the COVID-19 outbreak period between January and March 2020.Method: We used quota sampling to recruit 472 community-dwelling older adults aged 60 years or older. A multiple-group analysis was applied to examine the proposed hypotheses.Results: Community-based cognitive social capital was significantly associated with both social and emotional loneliness among older adults with relatively low levels of family social capital. However, these associations were statistically nonsignificant among those with high family social capital levels. Community-based structural social capital was not associated with loneliness in either family social capital group.Conclusion: The findings highlight the role of cognitive social capital in reducing loneliness and support community social capital replacement theory in explaining the mechanism linking social capital to loneliness in later life in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords:

• community social capital
• family social capital
• social loneliness
• emotional loneliness
• COVID-19

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics approval

Ethics approval has been obtained from the Ethics Committee of the University of Hong Kong (Reference No. EA200113).

Authors contribution

Nan Lu contributed to study planning, data collection, statistical analysis, and paper writing and revision. Jingyue Zhang wrote and revised the paper, and conducted statistical analysis.

Data availability statement

The data that support the study’s findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and the Research Funds of Renmin University of China.