Physical distancing is intended to mitigate the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, the impact of a decrease in face-to-face contacts on non-physical social contacts of older people remains unclear. In particular, we focus on intergenerational contacts that are especially relevant for older people’s mental health. Our analyses rely on an online quota sampling survey conducted in France, Italy and Spain during April 14–24, 2020. We considered the subsample of individuals aged 50 + (N = 4207). We calculated post-stratification weights based on official statistics and used logistic regressions to analyze how changes in intergenerational contacts differed by socioeconomic factors and to what extent non-physical contacts (via phone, social media, etc.) have compensated the reduction in face-to-face contacts. Finally, the change in digital devices’ use has been explored as a consequence of both decreased physical intergenerational contacts (PIC) and increased non-physical intergenerational contacts (NPIC). We found that about 50% of older people have increased their NPIC during the first lockdown. Younger individuals, those with medium level of education, and those economically better off displayed higher probabilities of increased NPIC as compared to their counterparts. NPIC increased especially for individuals whose face-to-face contacts decreased, particularly so if this happened with respect to contacts with children. A large share of older people has increased their use of video calls and instant messages, while only some increased the use of social media. These findings are relevant to understand how intergenerational contacts changed during the pandemic and may be central to better plan future outbreak responses.

保持身体距离的目的是减缓 SARS-CoV-2 病毒的传播。然而，面对面接触的减少对老年人非身体社交接触的影响仍不清楚。我们特别关注与老年人心理健康特别相关的代际接触。我们的分析依赖于 2020 年 4 月 14 日至 24 日在法国、意大利和西班牙进行的在线配额抽样调查。我们考虑了 50 岁以上个人的子样本（ N = 4207）。我们根据官方统计数据计算了分层后权重，并使用逻辑回归来分析代际接触的变化如何因社会经济因素而有所不同，以及非身体接触（通过电话、社交媒体等）在多大程度上补偿了面子的减少。面对面接触。最后，数字设备使用的变化被探讨为物理代际接触（PIC）减少和非物理代际接触（NPIC）增加的结果。我们发现，大约 50% 的老年人在第一次封锁期间增加了 NPIC。与同龄人相比，年轻的个体、中等教育水平的人和经济状况较好的人表现出更高的 NPIC 增加的可能性。 NPIC 增加，特别是对于那些面对面接触减少的人来说，特别是如果这种情况发生在与儿童接触的情况下。很大一部分老年人增加了视频通话和即时消息的使用，而只有部分老年人增加了社交媒体的使用。这些发现有助于了解大流行期间代际接触的变化，并且可能对于更好地规划未来的疫情应对措施至关重要。