How did COVID-19 Influence the Social Network of the Elderly?

Abstract

One pivotal element, which distinguishes the COVID-19 pandemic and other social shocks, is that the pandemic has directly hindered and reshaped the social life without leaving out a single person. Though many of the negative individual outcomes have been suspected to be associated with the significant decline of social networks, few studies have examined how social networks have been influenced by the shock. Considering that older adults are one of the most hard hit population, this void of knowledge can be especially alarming. The study aims to address three research questions: (i) to what extent did the social networks, namely kin ties and non-kin ties, of Korean older adults changed after the outbreak of COVID-19? (ii) within the configuration of social network of the elderly, which type of network, among kin and non-kin network, will remain relatively robust and which type will weaken after the shock of COVID-19? (iii) is there any disparity in the changes of social networks between the lower income and the upper income groups? In order to answer these questions, I take one of quasi-experimental approaches, namely difference-in-differences analysis, using National Survey of Older Koreans data. The statistical results show that the shock of COVID-19 decreased the probability to meet children or non-kin once or more a week by 12.2 percent point and 12.9 percent point respectively. While the sizes of decrease in the two types of network were not significantly different, the probability to meet children once or more a week and the probability for non-kin were 16.6% and 71.0% respectively in 2020, which cast huge doubt on the saliency of kin network of the elderly. Regarding the inter-group divergence of the network configuration between upper income group and lower income group, results indicated that the loss of kin network was relatively greater for lower income group and the loss of non-kin network was relatively greater for upper income group.

본 연구는 코로나-19가 노인들의 사회적 관계망에 미친 영향을 분석한다. 노인의 관계망은 크게 친족 관계망과 비친족 관계망으로 분류되었고, 코로나로 인한 충격이 서로 다른 경제적 집단에 상이한 영향을 미쳤는지 확인하기 위해 균등화가구소득을 기준으로 상위집단과 하위집단으로 표본을 나누어 분석을 진행하였다. 분석 결과 비친족 관계망이 소득에 상관없이 노인의 관계망의 주를 이루고 있었고, 두 집단 모두 코로나-19로 인해 친족 관계망과 비친족 관계망의 감소를 경험하였다. 소득 상위집단은 비친족 관계망의 감소를 상대적으로 더 크게 보인 반면, 하위집단은 친족 관계망의 감소를 상대적으로 더 크게 보여 집단 간 차이를 확인할 수 있었다. 이 같은 결과들은 노인들의 사회적 지지와 관계망이 대부분 가족으로 구성되어 있을 것이라는 기존의 이론 및 정책적 가정들에 대해 비판적 함의를 제공한다.